Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus)

The reed bunting is a seed eater and can be found on reeds around lakes, arable fields and even garden feeders. The northern populations migrate in the winter whilst those in the south will form folks often with other birds . They nest in ground vegetation laying 4 - 5 eggs which hatch after 13 days.

We have photographed them on the Nikon D3s with a mixture of the 300mm prime and the 500mm prime using a mixture of 1.4, 1.7 and the latest 2.0. We used fast shutter speeds and f stop of F8 and higher to obtain the required depth of field. Whilst these birds are common it will often take hours of waiting just to get that one photograph. The D3s has a Q mode reducing the noise of the mirror and shutter, when a bird is very nervous this does make a different although it is not suitable for flight shots.