House Sparrows in flight!

[coffeefilter]

I'm learning how to catch birds in flight, and today during my practice, I caught these House Sparrows. Compositionally, these kind of suck. It's a neighborhood packed tight with houses, cars, wires, fences and trees, so there's not much of a good shot anywhere. What I was going for was focus on the bird and freezing the wings. These are my first that don't look terribly terrible, most of them cropped with noise reduction. Any suggestions on what I can do to improve?


This was part of a group of 5-7 that flew around the neighborhood chirping loudly. I think they were letting other birds know that this is their area.

 

[petrochemist]

First one looks like it would be great as a tight crop (if there's enough MP...) most of the rest look a little dark IMO.
Getting in closer would help but it makes the normal difficulties of tracking/focusing/stopping motion harder still!
(I certainly couldn't mange)
Creditable attempts, that'll take lots of hard work to improve on - small birds in flight are a real challenge.

 

[coffeefilter]

Well, I like challenges. Seems to be how I operate best.

I've corrected some of the things you mention, here are the updates:




Here's an extra: a male House Finch scratching his face.