Crested caracara in flight

Compared to photographing small song birds that fly like bullets, raptors are easy to capture. It almost seems like they fly in slow motion. The biggest challenge, actually, is judging how tight to zoom in for a frame-filling shot. This crested caracara, for example, has large wings and when they are fully extended, more than likely the wing tips will be unintentionally cropped out simply because they extend beyond the edge of the frame. Therefore, you have to allow a lot of room around the birds to make sure the wings are not cut off. My settings for this shot were 1/3200, f/7.1 and 2000 ISO, and I used a 500mm focal length. My favorite types of birds in flight pictures are when the wings are fully extended and the tail feathers fan out. Birds use their tails to steer, balance, and land, and they are most commonly seen flared out when they are landing.