I met and had a conversation with a couple of photographers recently and one was telling me all sorts of places he goes for bird photography. A couple were quite local so I decided to try one out.
I recently posted a picture of one airborne, but this tip was for a solitary tree branch sticking out of the water near the shore. It did not disappoint.
For my part, when he was saying he doesn’t use auto-ISO because of noise, I told him about PhotoLab. 
I have come to taking PhotoLab for granted. I can push my ISO for handheld (like your birds) and macro work, knowing I can get the noise out. In my mind, that doesn’t make us ‘bad’ photographers, just ones who use the tools at hand. 
Nice shot by the way!
Yes, I keep on talking with members of our club photo, most of whom seem scared of pushing ISO and I blithely inform them that I don’t have any problem, even up to 25,000. I am met with disbelief but, since most members seem to have been recruited into the Adobe subscription army, and my recommendation of PhotoLab is scorned by the old and ancients, I suppose I mustn’t be too surprised 
(my emphasis in bold added)
Well said 
These are beautiful! Can I ask where they were (apart from on a stick in the water)? Their colouring is different from what I see here in Italy.
These are New Zealand natives. They self-introduced from Australia in the middle of the 20th century. The species is Hirundo neoxena.
