Golden-crowned Kinglet

A challenging glimpse and capture of a Golden-crowned Kinglet. The Canon R7 is noted for its advanced animal eye tracking which makes bird photography “easier”—-at times. This is among the first images I have captured of this species with the R7 and RF 100-500mm lens. I anticipated this to be a difficult photo to capture, and it was. In addition to nearly the bird’s non-stop movement, the camera’s animal eye tracking requires that, even when not in focus, the camera can “see” the eye. This means you cannot be too far out of focus as you hunt for the bird in your view finder. In addition, if there are too many branches, that the bird passes near (both in front and behind the bird) the camera will struggle. (I believe just about every other camera would as well.) Finally, if you try zooming out to find the bird and then zooming in to capture an image, you will find that the non-stop motion of birds like Kinglets will make that strategy highly problematic as well. Patience and luck are required, however once the camera finds the bird and locks on, the images are less likely to disappoint.