Male goldfinch at the feeder
Originally uploaded by Nooks

Nothing more complex than the macro lens on a tripod with a remote shutter release. Later I got a little more fancy and used a focus trap, but this is manually focused using a small twig as a guide. The camera was in shutter priority to try to freeze motion but this was a mistake since the shutter speed stays constant by varying aperture and affecting focus. Later pictures with lower ISO, slower shutter and wider aperture worked just as well, but had less compliant subjects.

I could have gotten closer but that makes focusing even more chancy (there are lots of pictures of very blurry goldfinches in my collection now) and the birds seemed to not appreciate a camera closer than a few feet away.

Lessons learned: go full manual next time, don't bother with the focus trap, I think it just made trying for a shot more difficult. An actual cable release instead of an IR remote makes taking a shot less chancy. An off-camera flash may be useful. A sandbag and string to keep the feeder still could be useful too.

Interestingly only a few male finches ever came anywhere near the setup: a shame since they're a vastly more colorful bird.