How to Photograph a Kestrel

[Henry Domke]

I'm not sure this is the right forum to start this post but...
Yesterday I found a pair of American Kestrels nesting in a high power line pole on my property. I saw one of the birds go in the hole in this photograph.

I don't have much experience photographing raptors so I would appreciate any advice you can offer.

There are two shots I'd like to get:
1. A tight shot of one of the birds on natural perch with an uncluttered background.
2. A tight shot of the bird in flight.

I would prefer to have not show "the hand of man" in the picture, in other words, no power poles, no wires.

The Kestrel photographs by David Salem, Arash Hazeghi, Loi Nguyen, Karl Egressy and Doug Brown serve as models to emulate.

I'm willing to use blinds, bait and sounds if it would help me get the shot and not harm the birds.

Thanks for any suggestions!

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

You're in for a challenge in the flying kestrel, that's for sure! The perched pic should not be a prob and you'll do whatever you do for any other bird.

I don't know what exactly you mean with 'kestrel in flight' but I'm going to assume you don't mean a 'kestrel in a dive'. I'd start off by trying to photograph it whilst hovering in mid air, trying to spot some prey. Set your camera on continuous focus and continuous shooting mode so it keeps focus on the bird as it moves around and takes photo's as fast as it can as long you keep the shutter down. Be careful to set your exposure on the shaded underside of the bird and not on the bright air around it, otherwise you're going to get a black blob in a bright sky. I'd probably set the exposure on a shaded element on the ground first and then ignore the camara's 'over exposed' signals when lifting it to photograph the bird. I'd then set my camera for exposure bracketing so it takes 3 pics every time I keep the shutter down: one as selected, one a full (or half) f-stop lower and another a full (or half) f-stop higher. Then take a lot of shots!

Once you've had reasonable success with that, try to follow the kestrel in a dive at a little wider focal length (you can crop it a bit later to bring it closer) - you just might nail one or two great shots! Your lens might or might not allow you to do this depending on it's AF speed capabilities.

Hope this helps - good luck!

[Diane Miller]

You may have an excellent discovery here! With many birds going to a nesting hole, especially with food for the young, or to a feeder, you can put up a natural-looking branch for a perch and they will often land there momentarily before going into the nest or to the feeder. That gives you a chance to make a hide and arrange the perch for favorable light. Then with some observation you might be able to get them on a customary flight path to the perch. (Between the perch and nest might be too crowded but is more controlled situation.)