Taking great photographs of wild birds perched on a tree branch or standing on the ground is a challenge but even more challenging is to capture a bird in action. Slight actions from birds singing, spreading their wings to land or take off, to actions like birds battling to defend their territory, swooping down to catch a fish, or a high dive into water creating a huge splash make for an exciting photo. Just capturing a bird in flight is not always the easiest thing to do. Many birds have an erratic flight which is hard to follow with the camera. I found out recently how hard it is to track birds with a super telephoto lens. Sure, if you want to take a picture of a big bird flying by using a 50mm lens and just want to include the bird in a landscape scene, no problem. But try to shoot a Tern constantly making acrobatic moves in flight while using a 500mm lens, not so easy. I just upgraded from a 300mm to a 500mm lens, and it’s like starting all over trying to make in flight shots.
I have included some of my favorite action shots of all types of birds that I have taken in the years past and hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them. They were taken using a variety of lens from wide angle close-ups to the long 500mm.

Wood Stork

Northern Cardinal, male

American White Pelicans

Royal Tern tossing fish

Semipalmated Plover

Northern Pintails

Pileated Woodpecker

Brown pelican

Osprey with fish

Northern Harrier

Mallard pair

Mallard Duck, male

Lesser Scaup, takeoff

Great Egrets face off

Snowy Egrets takeoff

Great Egret landing

Forster's Tern

Bald Eagle

Brown Pelican dive

Blue Jay with peanut

Bald Eagle adult

Bald Eagle