Oh sorry Fred just found it, excellent shot mate, I had a sparrow hawk ealier this year in the garden, it wacked a turtle dove clear off the fence, I got the camera out but could get any decent shots, then the girlfriend ran out, scared the sparrow hawk off and I had to run this bloody half eaten pigeon to the vets
Terry,I must admit,you read about not taking photo's thru glass,would I have got a better picture with the lens touching?
Monk,I have only find traces of one sparrow,so he's not been too successful,maybe a juvenile?He's trying hard though.
By the way,my camera is a Fuji S3000 and at present, I've not moved beyond the automatic setting!
Yes Fred up against the glass is better, no flare and no reflections.
As close to the bars as poss, there are usually wild animals behind bars and fences so just as close as possible, the camera will focus on the subject and the fences and bars will disappear out of focus.
(After 11pm especially)
It's a nice photo that Fred.
I have a sparrowhawk visiting my garden every day. Today it was sat on the fence watching the small birds feeding about 10 feet away.
One sparrowhawk flew into my window one day and left a perfect impression of its self against the glass. Outspread wings, eye, feathers the lot.
Terry`s right of course, you out focus fences and bars, I often use this method when I`m photgraphing animals at zoos.
Try your apperture priority setting Fred, you will probably need a tripod for this, but you can set your apperture at its largest number and it will increase your depth of field considerably, for sports photography or fast moving birds, try shutter priority and increase the ASA settings, it really is worth playing about with various settings, also try bulb in mannual for things like lightening and firework displays