Last night I attended a Salem Digital Photography Group Meetup and one of the topics on the agenda was photographing birds in flight.  As someone who loves to photograph birds, I was interested in what the presenter would have to say. 

For the most part, her presentation confirmed much of what I had learned myself through some thousands of clicks of the shutter. The tips she provided are listed here:

• Have all your settings dialed in before setting out into the field.
• Shoot with a very fast shutter speed (using shutter speed priority mode).
• Let your camera select the ISO to suit the amount of light available.
• Choose an appropriate f-stop to capture the field of view which will have the whole bird in focus.  (This is one tip I really liked... as I have many shots with a depth of field that is too narrow to have my subject in full focus). 

I would also add a few tips of my own to hers, just to round out the advice.  

• Know your subject's behavioral traits.  Often times they will indicate when they may fly off the perch with some tell-tale signs (they lean forward, look around).  
• Preselect your focus point to the center focal point.  This will enable you to quickly get your subject in the frame and start focusing on them prior to releasing the shutter.  Having the center focal point selected also gives you the best chance of a composition that balances the image, with space both in front and behind the subject.