Pair of Northern Flickers on a cedar tree on the north shore of Lake Ontario. Taken on a Canon 1DIV with a sigma 120-300 and 2x teleconverter. f/5.6, 1/1600s, ISO1600 at 600mm.
Whenever you go into the woods, at some point you will hear that knocking sound. Sometimes distant and not loud other times like a hammer on a tin roof. This is a sound that always take me off-trail to find out what is making the sound. From the tiny downy woodpeckers that you find almost everywhere, to the beautiful Pileated woodpecker, you will always see something worth taking a shot of and often get an interesting glimpse into their behavior.
Where to look?
In the woods of course - but I have found the best places to be in wooded areas near marshes where you will have many dead trees. If you see holes in trees, then it is mostly likely that a woodpecker made that hole. Other birds and squirrels may now be living in that hole but there is a good chance it was originally made by a woodpecker.
Red headed woodpecker on the edge of a marsh in Spartanburg, SC. Taken on a Canon 1DIV with 100-400 lens and 1.4x teleconverter. F/8, 1/800s, ISO400 at 560mm
I often look for fresh wood chips at the bottom of a tree for signs of nesting.
One caveat when looking in the woods is that flickers will often be found on the grass along with robins searching for bugs and worms.
Two Red-bellied woodpeckers active on a fall day in Spartanburg, SC. Taken in the late afternoon light on a Canon 1DIV with a 100-400 lens and 1.4x teleconverter. f/8, 1/1600s, ISO1600 at 560mm.
When to go?
As with most birds, the most active time is in the morning. In the woods and under the tree canopy, woodpeckers can stay active all day. Spring time is the best time of the year as they start nesting. Not only are they more easy to find, they are often very vocal in the spring.
Yellow-bellied sapsucker on a cool spring day in Haliburton, ON. Taken with a Canon 1DIV and sigma 120-300 lens and 2x teleconverter. F/5.6, 1/800s, ISO 800 at 600mm
What should you bring?
Most of these birds are relatively small, fast and tend to live in the woods which all tend to mean you are going to want to have a long, fast and stable lens and a camera that can handle high ISO well so that you can keep your shutter speed up as much as possible. Currently I have the Sony A7III for lower light situations and the A7RIV for slightly better light or birds that are much further away since I can crop a considerable amount with that sensor. If you can afford a long prime you will be rewarded with the best results, but a good long zoom will get the results as well although likely with a bit more noise. I use the Canon 500mm f/4 (sometimes with a 1.4 teleconverter) on my Canon cameras and have been using the Sony 200-600 on the Sony cameras. If you are hiking in to the spot, the Sony zoom will save your neck and back and you will still get the shot - the equivalent Sigma or Tamron 150-600 can also be a great choice as there are few other choices to get to that 600mm without breaking the bank.
Pileated Woodpecker in Edwin M. Griffin Nature Preserve along the Cottonwood trail in Spartanburg, SC. Taken on a Canon 1DIV with 100-400 and 1.4 teleconverter. F/9, 1/250s, ISO 400 at 476mm.
Even though you will be shooting in lower light I would still suggest that hand-held will yield better shots mostly because you will need to move around quickly to get a good angle and the birds rarely stay still for long. If you can watch at a nest for parents to come back and forth with food, then setting up a tripod is well worth it as you may wait for a considerable time between birds returning with food.
Bring bug repellent. You may be standing for some time and the mosquitos will find you sooner or later here in Ontario in spring or summer.
female hairy woodpecker on an old fence post in Whitby, ON. Taken on a Canon 1DIV with Sigma 120-300 lens. F/4, 1/800s, ISO100 at 300mm
Shooting techniques
Since you are shooting small, fast moving birds usually in the low light of the forest, good technique is crucial. For me, there are two main things that help me get the sho - this is assuming that you are already relatively good at getting clear shots with a long lens. The first is using your autofocus to good advantage.
Downy woodpecker in Cranberry marsh on a cold winter day in Ontario. Taken on a Canon 1DIV with Sigma 120-300 lens and 2x teleconverter. F/5.6, 1/1000s, ISO 1600 at 493mm.
In the woods, single point or a small group of focus points will tend to get the best results as the background and lower light will often confuse the autofocus systems if you try to use wide area tracking. I have found great results with mirrorless cameras using single point with object tracking. You can adjust where the point is for initially getting the subject but once you have object tracking you can move with the bird or adjust your composition without losing focus. On my Canon cameras I will tend to use either single point or group of 9 in the center. Without the object tracking I usually have to crop later to get the composition I want since I can’t move the points manually that quickly as these fast little birds change location and direction.
Pair of Pileated woodpeckers at the nest on the north Shore of Lake Erie. Taken on Canon 5DS with 100-400 lens. F/5.6, 1/2500s, ISO 1600 at 400mm
The second item has to do with the shooting mode. I have found that shooting in manual mode with auto ISO gives the best results in the woods. This really isn’t manual at all and that is a good thing since the exposure can change easily by more that 5 stops as the woodpecker moves from branch to branch and tree to tree. If you want to catch the moment the bird is doing something interesting then letting the camera determine the final exposure is much quicker than I can do in that situation. Exposure compensation and choosing a metering method that works for you is also pretty crucial. I will most often leave the metering in multi on the Sony or evaluative on the Canon and adjust exposure compensation based on the general background. In more harsh situations I will change to spot metering if I have one subject only.
Three Norther Flickers dancing around the top of a dead tree in a marsh in Spartanburg, SC. Taken with Canon 1DIV and 100-400 lens with 1.4x teleconverter. F/8, 1/1250s, ISO 1600 at 560mm.
In Manual mode I start with my shutter speed at 1/2000s and my aperture as big as my lens will allow. Usually the birds are far enough away that I can get the entire bird in focus but I will shut down the aperture as the bird come closer. I start with the high shutter speed to ensure that I’m not surprised by interesting interactions and find that I wasn’t prepared and end up with shots that have motion blur. Once I have assessed what the bird is doing I often bring the shutter speed down for some cleaner shots while the bird is not moving but try to remember to put it back up before I move on to the next bird. This is a technique that works for me most of the time, try it if you like but there are many ways to accomplish similar results.
Red-headed woodpecker taking off with an acorn. Taken using a Canon 1DIV with 100-400 lens and 1.4 teleconverter. F/8, 1/4000s, ISO 1600 at 560mm.
What shots to get?
As in most nature photography you will often want to get the portrait shot with the soft background. This is the “I got it” shot when you see your first one. Of course there are times that you will just be happy to get a clear shot of any sort if it is a rare sighting. Once you have this in your bag, then you can start looking at the behavioral shots and the interaction shots. Whether it is mating dances, nesting, feeding, in-flights or hiding nuts, there are many interesting things to try to capture with woodpeckers since they don’t tend to be too interested in us as long as we stay relatively still.
Red-bellied woodpecker posing on a fence post in Lynde Shores Conservation area near Whitby ON. Taken using Canon 1DIV and Sigma 120-300 with 2x teleconverter. F/5.6, 1/640s, ISO 400 at 600mm.
Birds I have found and the ones I haven’t yet.
On the eastern side of North America, where I have lived most of my life, we have a decent number of species of woodpeckers. Commonly I see downy and hairy woodpeckers along with red-bellied woodpeckers and northern flickers. A little less often I get to see yellow-bellied sapsuckers, pileated woodpeckers and red-headed woodpeckers. All of these I have been able to get shots of over the years and still enjoy capturing them as I see them.
Pair of Northern Flickers facing off. Taken using Canon 1DIV and Sigma 120-300 with 2x teleconverter. F/8, 1/640s, ISO 1600 at 526mm.
There are a few species in the Carolinas and in northern Ontario that I have not yet had a chance to get good pictures of. We did go searching a few times for red-cockaded Woodpecker that still has a small presence in South Carolina but we were pretty unsuccessful on those trips - another excuse to head back down to that area.
There are many good reasons to head up into northern Ontario for birds that live in the boreal forest. Three-toed and black-backed woodpeckers can be found in these forests and are on my list for some boreal forest trips in the future. Once I have found these I guess we will need to head out west to start finding new and more interesting species ( I say that a lot, and it is part of the nature focus long term plan). Until then, we shall continue to enjoy the nature we see around us now.
Red-headed woodpecker trying to find a good location to store an acorn. Taken using Canon 1DIV and 100-400 lens with 1.4x teleconverter. F/8, 1/4000s, ISO 1600 at 560mm.