Other tips:

Know your camera well to make quick adjustments when needed.

Another is work on post processing. Don’t be afraid of noise.

In addition to 8: For finding birds, use tools like ebird to help with locations close to you if you are new. Merlin for identification.

In addition to 2, stay away from gear forums. Too easy to locked into the next thing or decision paralysis. Figure the min needs and budget - figure the lens(es) first then back into the body. Get the best tripod/monopod if needed. Teleconverter if your lens support it.

These are incredible. The photos and the tips

Great tips, and I honestly believe tip 3 is so important and can’t echo this enough, especially encouraging fellow wildlife photographers to get out in rain/snow as it can really separate your images from others! Thanks you for putting the time into making this an educated post for others too.

Number 3 & 4 are so important.

the bears are goddamn so cool.

these are pretty good. most are properly in focus and sharp. getting the perfect shot is just hard. its a totally normal part of wildlife photography and also what makes it fun

things I look for when I'm shooting

1. good light. there's no way around it. best light is early morning and late before sunset.
2. eye level with bird and sharp eye. a few of yours are great like that tricolor Blackbird (?)
3. clean background. gotta move around to find the best angle
4. bonus: something extra. eg in flight, feeding chick, calling, fighting, catching food

just gotta go out more at diff times and different areas and look for new angles.

It is super hard, but so much fun! I watch a ton of these two channels, super clear and concise advice that you can use right away:

Simon D

Duade

Keep it Up!

"I would really appreciate some tips"

learn everything you can about your camera. Read the manual.

don't have one? go to camera company website, download the pdf of the manual and read it

go to youtube and search for vids 'setting up and using (model of camera)'

when i started out, i learned from a book called Digital photography for dummies

they might have an updated version

other books

Read this if you want to take great photographs by Carroll

Stunning digital photography by Northrup

don't get discouraged

“Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson

Wildlife:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69jcmNbqGrU

if u don't understand the terms he is using in the vid... refer to above books.

keep shooting

folks love contrast and color, except when it's added in post processing

Use a lot of sun screen and insect repellant!!!

I would say it's slightly too cropped, a little bit more of the environment around that little guy would make the picture breath a little more. It's a bit too dark too I think. Nice shot anyway.

Learn to adjust white balance. Makes a world of a difference

If you're a beginner, then you're off to a great start - this is a super shot. In terms of tips for this particular image, I can see a little noise grain in the background - have you run it through a noise reduction package (DxO for example)? I'm guessing you were at a reasonably high ISO, could you have reduced the shutter speed (I'm assuming your aperture was wide open given the DOF)? That would have helped bring some more light into the shadows on the left hand side. Otherwise, as has been said - environment is key. Lots of people concentrate on tight, portrait shots which are great and certainly have appeal on social media. But you'll find that many of the pros don't crop in as much and capture the animal in its habitat. Your photos will need this context if you ever want to get as far as submitting to magazines etc. I don't know what was on the right hand side of the scene, but given it's looking in that direction, you could open up a bit of space in the composition there.

Took me a sec to realize this is a zoo, I was like DAMN HOW DID U FIND THESE and get so close?!?! lol. Your pics are great and I love the composition! Finding wildlife in the wild and getting good photos will be an entirely different game

I would start with keeping them in color. Part of the beauty of wildlife is their unique and interesting colors and markings. Black and white doesn’t do it justice at all. Just my opinion.

Burst mode and patience. Don't be afraid of shooting hundreds of shost for each "keeper".

Get low!

Follow Simon d'Entremont on YouTube. You can learn a lot.

Patience will be your friend

Gonna need a longer lens if you want to evolve beyond tame ducks in the park.

Low angles are better for waterbirds in general.

Start saving for a telephoto and a macro. Macro lets you get all the tiny insects and telephoto is essential for wildlife unless you get real lucky. Also what the others said. Learn your settings.

I would suggest learning how to shoot in manual mode with your iPhone to start. Learn about shutter speed, ISO, white balance, etc and you can apply all of these things to a fancy camera down the road. The fundamentals are always the key!

Start with YouTube videos on wildlife photo composition. And practice, practice, practice. 

I’ve only been doing this for 5 or 6 months, but one of the simplest things that’s helped me is getting (more) eye level with the animals. If you compare an early squirrel shot with one from last week, that helps with the background not just being “ground” and showing more of the environment.

That’s not always possible and probably the first thing I learned about wildlife photography was the animals aren’t always cooperative in giving you a great shot. Sometimes you just have to wait for them to move to a higher position (pic 1 vs 2). Generally I don’t take shots of birds flying if the background is just a boring all-blue sky. Just this weekend I waited for something to fly low enough and I got lucky with both the sky and sea in frame.

Another thing that really helped was paying more attention to the background/foreground and overall composition. If the animal is basically the same color as the environment and it’ll be hard to see it, I don’t bother taking a picture. Same if there’s too many branches and things obscuring the face. I think you can use foreground as like artsy framing like you did with the first squirrel, so long as it’s not “in the way” like this annoying branch. If you notice, I tried moving to different perspectives to get the branch out of the way, but it was still there.

Hope this helps! Starting wildlife photography is one of the best decisions I’ve made.

I apologize for the wall of text...

I don't know if it is your lens/camera or the compression of uploading to reddit, but there's a lot of noise/color distortion, particularly in the first photo. Noise isn't necessarily bad, it can even be a style, but most people prefer wildlife photography — especially upclose 'portraits' — to be really crisp and clear. I almost always try to keep my ISO under 2000 and shutter faster than 200. That'll keep your photos clearer and crisper. Sometimes in a forest it's not easy at all to achieve those numbers, so picking the right day is very important. Light cloud cover is my favorite, as it gives a great ambient light and no harsh shadows, but still bright enough to give good light. Morning and evening (golden hour) are otherwise the best times for wildlife.

Another thing with wildlife is the eye. Unless your focus is specifially on something else in the frame, you almost always want the eye(s) to be in focus. With distant wildlife, it's less important, but still good to keep in mind. The Chickadee is a little blurry on the face, but otherwise you've done well with these four.

Another thing is framing: with portraits or closeups, make sure your subject has enough room to breath, especially in the direction they're facing. I often put the head in the middle, with the body off to the side. It feels more centered, even though it's technically not.

With birds in flight: high shutter speed, and just practice tracking birds so you can get them in focus and not jittery/blurred. Even with several years of experience I have a hard time with birds in flight.

One last general tip: getting on eye level. Most of the time, the best wildlife photographs will be taken at eye level, not looking down or looking up at them. Birds can be really difficult this way, since a lot of them are up in the trees; you just have to be patient :)

That squirrel looks so cute! I agree on a little less editing, nothing wrong with making things pop a bit (and ofc its personal preference) but for wildlife most prefer the colors to still look realistic. Aside from that, just have fun with it! It never ceases to amaze me how many beautiful creatures can be found are out there if only you look for it.

Personally in my opinion and I’m not a professional but just keep shooting trying different settings and angles. Don’t edit them so much. The first one is my favourite. Keep it up! It’s good fun. Expensive but worth it

Any advice?

Don't forget to post your pics to animal-related subs, like r/squirrels. People are usually friendly and will love your photos!

Try to befriend animals, this makes taking pics WAY easier.

As for photography itself, zoom telephoto lens help a lot.