Here's a Lowland White-eye (Zosterops meyeni), an endemic from the Philippines, having a caterpillar for lunch. Taken after I had lunch and a short rest. These guys are always a challenge to shoot as they are small and in perpetual motion. The light from the mid-day sun was harsh and the bird's position under the leaves didn't help. Heck I was shooting ISO 1250 at noon!
Hi Mark, we have these fellows here in SA, 'Cape white eyes ' certainly busy characters. It must have been pretty dark ( although the image doesnt show it )to use ISO 1250 and only come away with a ss of 1/320. Randy has covered everything there is to mention. When I start off with a shoot, I always check my histogram for exposure. In this, if your blinkies are on, it would have showed up the highlight areas, and you could have adjusted accordingly.
Thank you, Randy and Stuart. Totally agree with the points you mentioned.
@Stuart I use the same approach, too. :) The tricky part was that these guys were constantly moving from one branch to another (varying lighting). On hindsight I could have used a darker exposure to contain the highlights. Better luck next time.