1,000mm? Hand held? No prob.

Cattail fields are a favorite perching palace for male redwinged blackbirds. (The blah-looking females keep a far lower profile).

The birds are fairly shy and while it’s a joy to listen to their trilling sounds, getting close enough for a good picture is something of a challenge.

The long end of 300mm on my 28-300mm AF-S VR Nikkor is really not enough for the job, but it’s not like I’m going to lug around 8.4lbs and $12,000 of 600 f/4 AF-S Nikkor bottle, so I make do with what I have:

The red winged blackbird on a favorite perch.

How best to do that? Simply crop like crazy, taking benefit of the massive pixel count of the Nikon D800, and handhold with VR for a perfectly sharp result, using center spot AF:

Here’s the full frame. Focal length equivalent for the crop is 1,000mm.