Tufted Titmouse

With a home range that covers the eastern half of the United States the Tufted Titmouse is a common guest at winter bird feeders. Although not as confiding as some other species the titmice that visit our feeders are more trusting than the woodpeckers and nuthatches. This titmouse posed just a few feet away this evening as it awaited its turn at the feeder.

A sharp gust of cold wind caught this Tufted Titmouse from behind fluffing it feathers and tilting it forward toward the camera. Capturing the moment with a 1/1600 shutter speed the bird appears absolutely ferocious and ready to attack!

Photographing wildlife is always challenging and working with these small birds may be even more difficult in some respects than photographing larger creatures. Seldom do they sit still for more than a moment making it difficult to get the camera settings correct and focused before they zoom off. I am finding that I am most successful with these small birds when shooting the camera in manual exposure mode and adjusting my exposure for an evenly lighted tree trunk by the feeders. This allows me to shoot birds on the snow, against the sky, or with wood/brush background and not have to worry with adjusting the exposure compensation. By presetting the exposure focusing is the only concern when a bird poses momentarily.

The down side to shooting on manual is that one must adjust the camera settings as the light changes. Today, with the skies a clear blue, this was not a problem but on a partly cloudy day with fast moving clouds it can be enough to drive one nearly insane :)