I happen to live in an urban area where forest and grass comes in small quantities next to your house. There are parks, but sometimes having your environment around you working for you is much better. Recently a snow storm moved in and it triggered an influx of dark-eyed juncos (‘snowbirds’.) When the snowstorms move in the feeder gets real busy. Food becomes scarce for them and you can capitalize on this. This is an opportune time to setup camp and watch these songbirds chow down on some thistle (nyjer) seed. Anticipation can definitely help. If you have some available space in your backyard set up some sort of blind. What has worked for me and is great for all the elements. A cheap 20-30$ tent you can find at your usual department store. It sits out there 24/7 and allows me enough space to move around and prevent alerting the birds to my presence. By having the tent out there for a few days the birds get used to its presence. It’s low maintenance with just a small shake required to keep the heavy snow off of it (yes, I’ve broken one this way.) Make sure to make the transition of getting in and out of the tent as quick and efficient as possible. Making more trips will further alert and disturb the birds to your presence.
As for the set up it stays pretty simple. Put on your biggest lens (make sure your minimum focus distance works well with the tent position) on a tripod and grab any accessories you’ll need; since you might be there a while. Stuff your pockets with extra cards, an extra battery(ies), a book, and water. Possibly a cushion depending if your tent is on concrete as mine is. One additional item may be a rain coat or extra big microfiber/cloth to hang over the barrel in case the wind is picking up or part of the barrel will be exposed for a long period of time.
As you could tell here I was aided by some fill flash (SB-800) in order to fill in these normally dark colored birds.
Make sure to layer when you are in there. It can be colder due to just sitting on your bum for extended periods. The tent allows me to catch up on a favorite book or review a field guide while I wait for the birds to arrive. Try to avoid any sort of heating element in these tents. Even things such as a laptop. Adding these type of devices can cause a temperature difference that will result in moisture buildup which could wreak havoc on your gear.
Setting up excess branches helps aid to get the birds where you want them (scatter a little food could help too.) These birds are typically found hopping around on the ground, but who doesn’t enjoy a good sit?
Working shutter speeds around 200th of a second and slower seem to do the trick. This is a female dark-eyed junco hanging on to a twig that has fallen in past wind storms (use fallen twigs and branches, please don’t cut fresh ones) I set up connecting the feeder to the ground.
Gotta love it when they venture out and close-up. A huge advantage of this scenario. Allows for a birds comfort and photographic enjoyment.
The vines toward the back of the fence add a great touch of green. Backgrounds are something to stay aware of. All the dead/dormant grasses (and many weeds to be honest) are a tad messy and could bug some viewers.
This is a more typical find. A much more normal scenario with them hanging out along the ground searching for food.
The size of twigs is something worth consideration as well. This twig in hindsight seems approaching on the larger side. Possibly leading to over shadow the smaller song bird. Something to keep in mind when twig/branch searching.
