My backyard bird set up

Many people have asked to see the “magic” behind my backyard bird portrait set up. There isn’t any magic, but I’ll provide a bit of an explanation. (If you haven’t checked out my bird galleries and monthly posts… this will help explain what follows below.)

We live in a subdivision in St. Charles and we’ve been feeding birds year round for almost 30 years. We put out sunflower seeds in a squirrel proof feeder and I make my own suet. In the spring we also plant zinnias and other native wildflowers to attract goldfinches and butterflies. Our backyard faces southeast and we have a thin strip of woods and creek behind our home.
In the video below you will see our feeder at the edge of the yard and positioned between a redbud and magnolia tree. In front of and to the left and right are two perches I’ve set up. I change the one on the right quite often. My source is the woods behind us. If you don’t have a source in your yard, visit a local wildlife area and look for fallen branches or other material you find would make an interesting perch. This winter I added some left over pine rope and pine cones.

You can make a perch very easily. I used an old telescoping light stand pole. I made a plastic base about 12 inches square and attached it to the top of the pole. I also use conduit poles in my flower garden. You can buy a 10 foot piece of conduit for about 3-4 bucks. Cut to your desired length, but leave enough room to drive into the ground – about 12 inches will do. The 4 inch stove pipe you see hanging from the poles help prevent squirrels and raccoons from climbing on them. Yes, they really work! The cost is about $4 for a 2 foot section. Drill holes and attach with a short bungee so they can hang loosely.
A key to attracting birds to feeders and perches is to provide them with ease of entry and exit with cover close by. Don’t be alarmed if you set out feeders and you don’t have flocks of birds the next day. But, birds WILL find your free food and they will be back!

In the summer or during fair weather I shoot from the patio and don’t use a blind. I do use a tripod or monopod with a gimbal head – although a gimbal isn’t necessary. The weight of the camera and 600mm lens can be quite a challenge when not on a tripod. (Besides, I have Tourette syndrome, so holding anything steady for more than a nano-second is next to impossible – even with image stabilization. This winter I have been shooting from the back garage door. This is about 20 feet away from my perches. Usually I’ll hang some camo cloth and sit behind it. Although from 20 feet, the birds don’t seem to care. Flickers are the most cautious but, I can almost walk up to a downy woodpecker. I think they DO recognize the hand that feeds them.
I keep the perches about the same height as the feeder. I also like to keep my camera about the same height. I think it’s important when shooting wildlife to be at the same eye level as them – when possible.
I will place a small dab of homemade suet or sprinkle a few seeds on the perch, or an occasional peanut chip in the winter due to the high caloric content.
I try to align my perch and my camera in such a way as to eliminate distracting backgrounds. This may change with the seasons. When the trees are all leaved out in the spring and summer it’s not much of an issue.

Camera set up
I shoot with a Canon 5D mark 4 and a Sigma 150-600mm contemporary lens. And, I only shoot in RAW format. I almost exclusively shoot between ISO 1600-3200. My preferred aperture is f6.3-f8 which usually yields a shutter speed between 1/250 – 1/800 second. I probably average between 1/250 – 1/800. I use single point focus and try to focus on the eye or at minimum the head of the bird. The depth of field with the settings shown above is approximately 1 inch! So, you will never see an entire bird in focus. That’s also why the background is completely blurred. I try to capture the birds broadside. This seems to provide the best detail. Besides shooting a bird straight on will be a blurry mess. On larger birds like a flicker or thrasher, if I focus on the eye, the beak will be blurry along with the rest of the body. So, I prefer shooting broadside.

Lighting
Shooting southeast the sun comes up in the back left portion of my yard and travels to the front right. On sunny days this means my subjects will be backlit except for early morning and late afternoon shots. Therefore, I prefer high overcast days. Even though the light is more flat, it’s more even and consistent. It’s not quite so harsh in the summer, but winter is brutal as the sun is low in the sky to begin with. I don’t use flash, although a little fill light would work very well. If you choose this method, you would need to set your flash between 1 – 2 stops lower than ambient light.

Photoshop
Of course I use PS. I couldn’t set up my images for printing without it. But, let me explain. I use to have a color darkroom and I try to use PS in the same way. Shooting in RAW yields a very flat looking image. Nothing like what the eye can see. So, I adjust for color balance, contrast, and crop as needed. Sometimes I’ll clone out a small distracting element in the background if needed. The bottom line is, I try to get it right in the camera.

Good luck and happy shooting!