Elusive Mountain Quail

The most elusive, challenging and difficult bird to photograph in my backyard is the Mountain Quail. There is a very small covey nearby and they occasionally come into my backyard. When I'm in the photoblind I can hear them coming by their soft feeding calls. Yesterday morning was a textbook case. I could hear them coming up the ridge. Because I was photographing small birds I knew I would have to back off my zoom lens before they arrived or they wouldn't fit in the frame of the image. I slowly pulled back the zoom and waited quietly. Mountain Quail are extremely skittish and will flush at the merest sight or sound of motion. I waited and waited for about five minutes. One quail made an appearance and hopped up onto the perch I had set up. Ever so slowly I inched the camera over to focus on it. I realized I hadn't pulled the zoom back far enough and I was too tight. I made one image. Then I attempted to try and slowly back the lens off a little bit more. Instantaneously the quail jumped off the perch and ran into the forest! As I stated before they are very skittish. Better luck to me next time. God's blessings upon your weekend, chris This image was created with a Canon 7D MII and a Canon 100-400IS v.1 lens with a Canon 550 EX for fill flash.