noisy canon 5d

Hello I have just started trying to photograph birds ,But due to a back problem I cannot walk or carry items far ,so I constructed a bird table with a narrow top that I can position near to a rear window aprox 5.6ft away from camera ,this enabled me to set my 5D with ,f4 300mm,with or without 1.4TC on a bean bag resting on my window ledge behind a lace curtain with the lense poking throu,I have to shoot mainly in the morning due to the light droping off after 2.3pm,well I was pleased with my table witch was made out of logs ,and started putting out bread various bird seeds etc and down came the birds nothing special ,sparrow,robin,blue tit etc ,but birds were quite happy eating off the table, time to shoot some birds ,Well I know have a collection of birds legs ,birds just 2.3inches off the table and 1 sparrow nearly in focus,but mainly birds just leaving .I tried high speed flash no better ,once I press the bl---dy shutter the noise terrifies the birds, and away they go !!!so how can i silence the 5d ,any help would be greatly received,this is my ist attempt at bird photos and i would score bird 50 me 1 ,my family now think I am nuts,how you blokes do birds in flight I just do not know
many thanks for reading

Sorry to hear about your back. I'm thankful that I'm "blessed" with only minor chronic back pain.

You must be filling the frame with the 300mm and the 1.4TC. Have you tried putting a little distance betwee yourself and the birds?

If you had the 5DII or the 7D or even the T2i Rebel, then you'd have Live View, with the mirror up and a silent shutter option. I HATE suggesting changing bodies, but that may be the solution in this case, if you can't move a little farther away to avoid spooking the birds. The new high end Rebel looks like an incredibly competent, relatively inexpensvie camera. With your setup, I don't think you'll need the 8-fps of the 7D as much.

If all else fails, aim high.

Peter,
I agree with David. Moving back into your room would make the noise from the camera be trapped by the room and the greater distance would reduce the sound for the birds. David also makes a good point about the resolution on the 5D versus a modern camera. The 5D has 8.2 micron pixels and something like a 7D has 4.3 micron pixels. You could move about 8.2/4.3 = 1.9 times further back and get the same detail on the bird. You could put the camera on a tripod with a wimberly sidekick so it stays balanced and you can relax for long periods with it.

Roger

To the people who replied many thanks ,looks like I need to hire a 7d for a week ,the idea of mirror lock up and live view sounds amazing to me ,still in Dslr the dark ages ,lots to think about!!! many thanks for taking the trouble to reply
peter