Hi! Deltasun, for me , the exposure is always a hard part too, I found the reflection of a white bird in a sunny day is very strong usually stronger than you think, if I use AV mode in my 7D, I usually have to use 1 2/3 stop of comp.to get proper exposure ( for white bird like egret) and the background will be under exposed for sure. other people use sunny 16 rule with M mode( see older post in this thread) always check histogram to make sure if it is properly exposed.


also for BIF, you want faster speed, slower than 1/800 usually will not get good result( not sharp enough)


hope that help!