This article shares a selection of photographs of New Zealand birds captured handheld with M.Zuiko 75-300 mm f/4.8-6.7 II and M.Zuiko PRO 12-100 mm f/4 IS zoom lenses. As regular readers know, I spent some time deciding on which lenses to bring on our recent photography tour of New Zealand… especially when it came to a birding lens.
NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.
After some deliberation and additional field testing, I eventually decided on the M.Zuiko 75-300 mm f/4.8-6.7 II. The compact size and light weight of this lens eventually won out over other options.
The very first bird I had a chance to photograph was a Tui captured in a Pro Capture H image run as it took flight from its perch… somewhat buried in a tree.
I spotted it late in the afternoon after we had checked into our room. I used Pro Capture H at 60 frames-per-second to capture the bird taking flight.
Unfortunately I had to use ISO-16000 due to the low light conditions… so the quality of the images is lacking.
On the positive side I did manage to get a few useable photographs. In Maori culture the Tui is associated with life fulfillment, confidence and spiritual harmony.
As was anticipated, I did not have very many opportunities to photograph birds while in New Zealand. The main focus of our self-drive tour was landscape photography.
During our trip we had a limited number of opportunities to specifically focus our efforts on capturing images of New Zealand birds.
Before we left the Katikati area we did do a brief morning walk along the Katikati Bird Walk trail.
This activity, at the beginning of our trip, generated a significant number of our total number of New Zealand bird images.
We’ve included GPS data for all of the images in this article. This enables interested readers to locate our shooting positions for all of the featured images.
In an earlier article we detailed capturing an Eastern Rosella taking flight using our standard Pro Capture H settings.
These same settings (i.e. 60 frames-per-second, Pre-shutter frames and Frame Count Limiter both set to 15, and a single, small AF point) were used for any of the photographs featured in this article, where the use of Pro Capture H is noted.
While my bird photography often focuses on birds-in-flight, some additional attention was given to perched birds and those on the ground, during our recent trip.
As you review the EXIF data for each image you will find the occasional photograph captured with the M.Zuiko PRO 12-100 mm f/4 IS zoom lens… like the one above taken at Hamilton Gardens.
In some instances we had briefly stopped to grab some quick landscape images when a bird happened by. Rather than miss the opportunity I used the PRO 12-100.
As noted earlier, I used Pro Capture H for a number of bird images during our trip to New Zealand. I found this technology worked very well with the M.Zuiko 75-300 mm f/4.8-6.7 zoom lens.
Capturing birds-in-flight was a bit more of a challenge. I knew from some earlier tests and a dry run that I did before we left, that auto focus acquisition with the M.Zuiko 75-300 II zoom is noticeably slower for birds-in-flight than with lenses like the M.Zuiko 100-400 or 150-600.
So, I had to adjust my usual technique for birds-in-flight and did not use a combination of Pro Capture L with Bird Detection AI Subject Detection.
Instead I used Bird Detection AI alone, as I found it was a tad more effective with the 75-300 II zoom lens.
Given the relatively few opportunities I had to capture photographs of New Zealand birds, I was pleased with the number of species that were documented.
I used my peripheral vision to watch for movement in trees which helped locate some perched birds. Listening for bird calls also helped find some potential photographic subjects.
When I did find birds perched birds I typically shot a few short bursts of images. This allowed me to capture some variations in body and head movements… like the open beak on the shag illustrated above.
I often got close to wild birds using a zig-zag approach as this tends not to spook skittish birds. As soon as the birds appeared to take notice of me I stopped and captured whatever images I could.
Occasionally I found groups of birds that were well separated from the shore and were quite relaxed.
This allowed me to move in as close as possible and photograph individual behaviours.
We visited one bird sanctuary that yielded precious few useable images because of the cage material used.
I did get some cute images of a young, captive duckling.
And, after studying its behaviour for a little while, I was able to capture it in mid-dive.
I also looked for birds that seemed out-of-place. For example, the rock pigeon in the image above was mixed in amongst some gulls. Its wing and body movements attracted my attention as they stood out from other proximate birds.
I was able to move in a bit closer and got a nice Pro Capture H run of the rock pigeon taking flight.
While on a short duration forest walk I noticed a pair of birds in deep shade. Not having my 75-300 II with me, I did the best I could capturing a Pro Capture H run of one of the birds taking flight with the PRO 12-100. Even at ISO-6400 the image was badly underexposed… so image quality suffered.
As regular readers know I’m not the best at bird identification… but I think these are a pair of European goldfinches.
Our planned visit to the Royal Albatross Centre was cut short due to inclement weather. I was capturing a few landscape images when this red-billed gull (?) flew by only 5.4 metres away. This entailed a quick Custom Mode adjustment… then ‘turn and shoot’.
I was able to move in very slowly on the pair of terns in the above photograph. One decided to finally take flight when I was only 2.2 metres away. This generated a couple of useable Pro Capture H images.
During a short stop in the Riverton area I had a single opportunity to catch a pair of pied oystercatchers in flight (my best guess on species). My wife’s 75-300 II was up to the task.
A few addition photographs of New Zealand birds follows…
While bird photography was not our primary focus on our recent trip to New Zealand, having the M.Zuiko 75-300 mm f/4.8-6.7 II proved to be a very useful lens to have in my backpack.
Technical Note
Photographs were captured handheld using camera equipment noted in the EXIF data. All images were created from RAW files using my standard process in post. This is the 1,428 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.
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That’s a great shot you took, I have the em1 camera and find it hard to focus on birds, is there a big difference in focusing with the camera ai you are using?
Hi Lan,
I find that Bird AI in combination with Pro Capture L and a single AF point works extremely well. For cameras like the E-M1 Mark II or Mark III using CAF (without tracking) and a 5×5 AF grid works well for birds-in-flight.
Tom