[wassa1957]

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Hi
The above was taken with 150-600mm at 600mm. It was a, for me, once only shot as I was shooting the male and sensed movement to left and refocussed shot. OK, but I left focus points on 9 so chicks were not as clear as possible due to low light and their size. Advice would be go to a single shot? The parent's eyes are clear. Personally have not seen Curlews, but heard them, for 20 years. Amazed at family shots. This feeds on advice from Steve about the focus point being larger, at a magnification of lens than the object.

 

[DRwyoming]

OK, but I left focus points on 9 so chicks were not as clear as possible due to low light and their size. Advice would be go to a single shot? The parent's eyes are clear.

It sounds like you needed additional DoF via a smaller aperture (higher f/ stop number) to capture both the parents and chicks eyes in sharp focus. Assuming the D9 area was somewhere near the eye of the adult then the focus system did just what it should but couldn't keep both sets of eyes in focus because the two birds weren't in the same focus plane. Changing focus area mode wouldn't help in that kind of a situation. Sure if you'd placed a single point on the chick's eye it might have been sharp but without additional DoF through smaller aperture the parent's eye would have gone soft.

Generally speaking the trick to keeping the eyes sharp in multiple animals at the same time is stopping the lens down for additional DoF unless you just happen to get lucky and all the eyes are the same distance from your camera and therefore in the same focus plane. It can be hard to remember to check your aperture in the heat of the moment but FWIW I reflexively stop down any time I have more than one animal in the frame and want to keep their eyes sharp.

 

[Gongster]

Dave's got it spot on, nothing more to add from me.

 

[wassa1957]

Thanks for that. Good advice.