SX50 bird fiasco. Help.

confyushis wrote:

from the EXIF data, you shot at a focal length of 215 mm which is the far end of your zoom range (~1200 mm full-frame equivalent).

a rule of thumb i use for long lenses is to set your shutter speed to 1/full-frame focal length. in your case, when shooting at the long end, you would probably need a shutter speed of at least 1/1200s using Tv or M mode to account for camera/lens shake (not counting image stabilization (allows slower shutter speed for still objects) or sensor size (needs faster shutter speed)) ...

your first shot needed a shutter speed of ~1/1200s (maybe even push it with 1/600s and image stabilization) but your camera chose 1/320 which is ~2 steps slower and could have led to the blurry photo.

the reason your sparrow shot might be better is because you are using a focal length of 146 mm (~800 mm full-frame equivalent). by the rule of thumb above, you'd need a 1/800s shutter speed. but your camera chose 1/400s (only 1 step slower) and is probably using image stabilization which helps.

basically, it's up to you to tell your camera how to operate. try Tv (or M) mode to set your shutter speed (you will probably have to adjust ISO as well) and see if you can't freeze those birds next time.
good luck ...