Guides · Free tool

What shutter speed freezes a bird in flight?

Pick your camera, lens, distance and bird to see how far the wingtips and the whole bird blur at your shutter speed, the speed it takes to freeze them, and how often a burst catches the wings sharp.

Your setup

Camera body

Focal length (mm)

Teleconverter

Distance to the bird Unit

Bird

Shutter speed (1/… second)

Burst rate (frames a second)

Wingtips mid-stroke, panning with the bird

–of blur

Whole bird crossing, camera still

–of blur

Shutter to keep the wingtips pixel-sharp (1 px)
Shutter to keep them sharp on screen (3 px)

Estimates, measured at 100%: one photo pixel to one screen pixel.

How it works

You pan with the bird, so its body stays put in the frame and the blur that's left comes from the flapping wings. Each wing is taken to sweep through an arc of 100° at the bird's wingbeat rate: fastest mid-stroke, and stopping for an instant at the top and bottom. The calculator turns that wingtip speed into pixels on your sensor, from the lens's magnification at your distance and the size of your camera's pixels, and measures blur at 100%. The camera-still line uses the bird's cruising speed instead, for a bird crossing in front of a camera that doesn't move. Real birds speed up, glide, turn and flap harder on take-off, so treat every number as an estimate.

Where the numbers come from

Camera sensor sizes and pixel counts are the makers' published specifications. Every bird is taken to beat its wings through a 100° stroke (est.; 80–130° depending on speed, Park et al. 2001). Values marked est. are estimates.

American Kestrel: wingspan 0.56 m (All About Birds); cruising speed 11 m/s (est. from the Lesser Kestrel, Bruderer & Boldt 2001 radar data, in Alerstam et al. 2007, Protocol S1); 5.5 wingbeats a second (est. from the size and weight of the Lesser Kestrel, Pennycuick 1996).
Bald Eagle: wingspan 2.04 m (All About Birds); cruising speed 14 m/s (est. from the White-tailed Eagle, Pennycuick et al. 2013); 2.6 wingbeats a second (est. from the size and weight of the White-tailed Eagle, Pennycuick 1996).
Barn Owl: wingspan 0.88 m (RSPB); cruising speed 11 m/s (est. from size and weight, Alerstam et al. 2007); 4.4 wingbeats a second (Krishnan et al. 2022).
Barn Swallow: wingspan 0.31 m (All About Birds); cruising speed 11 m/s (Bruderer & Boldt 2001 radar data, in Alerstam et al. 2007, Protocol S1); 8 wingbeats a second (Park et al. 2001).
Black Kite: wingspan 1.45 m (Naturalis); cruising speed 12 m/s (Bruderer & Boldt 2001 radar data, in Alerstam et al. 2007, Protocol S1); 2.7 wingbeats a second (est. from size and weight, Pennycuick 1996).
Canada Goose: wingspan 1.49 m (All About Birds); cruising speed 17 m/s (Alerstam et al. 2007, radar); 4 wingbeats a second (est. from size and weight, Pennycuick 1996).
Common Kestrel: wingspan 0.76 m (RSPB); cruising speed 13 m/s (Pennycuick et al. 2013); 5.2 wingbeats a second (est. from size and weight, Pennycuick 1996).
Common Swift: wingspan 0.45 m (RSPB); cruising speed 11 m/s (Bruderer & Boldt 2001 radar data, in Alerstam et al. 2007, Protocol S1); 8 wingbeats a second (est. from size and weight, Pennycuick 1996).
Common Tern: wingspan 0.78 m (All About Birds); cruising speed 11 m/s (Pennycuick et al. 2013); 4.6 wingbeats a second (est. from size and weight, Pennycuick 1996).
Great Blue Heron: wingspan 1.84 m (All About Birds); cruising speed 11 m/s (est. from the Grey Heron, Bruderer & Boldt 2001 radar data, in Alerstam et al. 2007, Protocol S1); 2.7 wingbeats a second (est. from the size and weight of the Grey Heron, Pennycuick 1996).
Great Egret: wingspan 1.38 m (All About Birds); cruising speed 10 m/s (Bruderer & Boldt 2001 radar data, in Alerstam et al. 2007, Protocol S1); 3.1 wingbeats a second (est. from size and weight, Pennycuick 1996).
Grey Heron: wingspan 1.85 m (RSPB); cruising speed 11 m/s (Bruderer & Boldt 2001 radar data, in Alerstam et al. 2007, Protocol S1); 2.7 wingbeats a second (est. from size and weight, Pennycuick 1996).
Herring Gull: wingspan 1.4 m (RSPB); cruising speed 13 m/s (Pennycuick et al. 2013); 4 wingbeats a second (est. from size and weight, Pennycuick 1996).
Mallard: wingspan 0.89 m (All About Birds); cruising speed 19 m/s (Alerstam et al. 2007, radar); 7.1 wingbeats a second (est. from size and weight, Pennycuick 1996).
Mute Swan: wingspan 2.23 m (All About Birds); cruising speed 16 m/s (Alerstam et al. 2007, radar); 3.7 wingbeats a second (est. from size and weight, Pennycuick 1996).
Northern Gannet: wingspan 1.82 m (All About Birds); cruising speed 18 m/s (est. from size and weight, Alerstam et al. 2007); 3.9 wingbeats a second (Krishnan et al. 2022).
Northern Harrier: wingspan 1.1 m (All About Birds); cruising speed 9.1 m/s (est. from the Hen Harrier, Alerstam et al. 2007, radar); 3.6 wingbeats a second (est. from the size and weight of the Hen Harrier, Pennycuick 1996).
Osprey: wingspan 1.65 m (All About Birds); cruising speed 11 m/s (Bruderer & Boldt 2001 radar data, in Alerstam et al. 2007, Protocol S1); 3.2 wingbeats a second (est. from size and weight, Pennycuick 1996).
Peregrine Falcon: wingspan 1.05 m (All About Birds); cruising speed 12 m/s (Bruderer & Boldt 2001 radar data, in Alerstam et al. 2007, Protocol S1); 5.2 wingbeats a second (est. from size and weight, Pennycuick 1996).
Red Kite: wingspan 1.85 m (RSPB); cruising speed 12 m/s (Alerstam et al. 2007, radar); 2.6 wingbeats a second (est. from size and weight, Pennycuick 1996).
Red-tailed Hawk: wingspan 1.24 m (All About Birds); cruising speed 13 m/s (est. from the Common Buzzard, Bruderer & Boldt 2001 radar data, in Alerstam et al. 2007, Protocol S1); 3.5 wingbeats a second (est. from the size and weight of the Common Buzzard, Pennycuick 1996).
Ruby-throated Hummingbird: wingspan 0.1 m (All About Birds); cruising speed 7.8 m/s (est. from size and weight, Alerstam et al. 2007); 53 wingbeats a second (All About Birds).
Sandhill Crane: wingspan 2 m (All About Birds); cruising speed 15 m/s (est. from the Common Crane, Alerstam et al. 2007, radar); 3.1 wingbeats a second (est. from the size and weight of the Common Crane, Pennycuick 1996).
White-tailed Eagle: wingspan 2.2 m (RSPB); cruising speed 14 m/s (Pennycuick et al. 2013); 2.6 wingbeats a second (est. from size and weight, Pennycuick 1996).

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Questions

What shutter speed do I need for birds in flight?

It depends on what you want sharp. For the body of a bird you're panning with, many bird photographers start around 1/2000. Freezing the wingtips mid-stroke can take far more: the tip of a wing 0.9 m long, beating 2.5 times a second through a 100° stroke, peaks at about 12 metres a second, and close up that can call for 1/8000 or faster. Set your camera, lens, distance and bird above to see the speed for your shot.

Why are the wingtips blurred when the eye is sharp?

Panning cancels the bird's flight, not its flapping. Mid-stroke, the wingtips sweep up and down past the body at several metres a second, while the head barely moves against your lens. So a frame can have a sharp eye and soft wingtips, and many photographers like a little wingtip blur because it shows motion.

Does a faster burst help?

Yes. Twice in every wingbeat, at the top and the bottom of the stroke, the wings stop for an instant as they change direction. Each frame is a chance to land near that moment, so more frames a second means more frames with sharp wings. The catch is finding them among hundreds of near-identical shots: the free Burst Picker finds the sharpest bird in each burst.

Why do distance and focal length matter?

Blur is counted in pixels, and the bigger the bird is in the frame, the more pixels each centimetre of wing movement crosses. Halve the distance or double the focal length and the blur roughly doubles at the same shutter speed, along with the bird's size. A camera with smaller pixels shows more blur in pixels for the same reason. APS-C crop mode on a full-frame camera doesn't change it: it only trims the frame.

What do 1 px and 3 px of blur mean?

They're how far a point on the bird smears across the photo while the shutter is open, counted in the photo's own pixels and seen at 100%, one photo pixel to one screen pixel. One pixel or less is pixel-sharp: as crisp as the sensor allows. Up to about 3 pixels is hard to see unless you zoom right in, and usually disappears once the photo is shrunk for a screen or the web. They're rules of thumb, not hard limits.

Also free: the reach calculator shows how many pixels land on the bird with your camera, lens and distance.