No matter how quickly I try to focus on a bird, they often are quicker than I am. Often I am left with merely an image of an empty branch, but every now and then I’ll get a cool image of the bird taking off.
That was the case yesterday, when I tried to get a shot of this small, dark-colored bird. I really like the position of the tail and the detail of the wings, which help to form an almost abstract portrait of the unidentified bird.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Certainly the decisive moment!
That’s one reason I concentrate on plants-they don’t fly away on you.
Plants have their own set of photographic challenges, including lighting, wind movement, depth of field, and inaccessibility. Birds, though, really do push the limits, because there are so many variables, most of which you can’t control.