Aerial Combat, Crows vs Hawk

Red Tailed Hawk under attack by multiple birds. They say the 70-200 is

little small for this type of work but in this case it was the perfect

size lens, although it weighs a ton to hold pointing at the sky. IS is

key.

David - I have been shooting birds for quiet a few years and all I can tell you is "bigger is better". I am NOT ready to go out and drop $6k on a 500mm, f4, lens anytime soon, but I shoot with people who have such equipment. The only way I can compete with smaller glass is by getting closer. IMHO you need bigger glass to make this work for anything other than a snapshot.

Bigger is usually better until you have to carry it. For now the 70-200 mm with the 1.6X APC sensor is as good as I can do. I do have the 2X teleconverter, but it does lose a bit. The guys with the really big lenses must have some locations with a blind set up. This 70-200 lens gets very heavy I don't know what a 500 weighs in at. Its pretty much as big as you can carry hiking into the woods. I don't think I'll try to carry my Celestron 8 at 2000mm F/8 into the woods. :-)