First attempt at bird photography

I have not handled the Rebel XT, but I'm sure an XT User will post the correct method for EC. From what I can see on the WEB, there should be a button on the upper right side on the back of the camere near "AV" that has a +/- on it, this button when press with another may adjust the EC...I can't be sure....but take a look in your manual under exposure compensation....I hope this helps...

Any Rebel XT users out there that can shed light on using EC....

Yep thanks kr88, read the manual and it said the same. Ill give it a crack when i have the chance.

Lovely shots, your off to a good start indeed. As Fee said with the first shot, maybe a little exposure compensation would have helped. Also if the bird wasn't that far away you could have used fill flash. On the 350D to dial in EC press the little Av button next to the right hand side of the LCD screen and then turn the mail dial while keeping the Av button depressed.

As for the birds, Trace was correct in that the first is a Wattle bird but just to clarify there are several types of Wattle bird. This one is the Little Wattlebird or also known as the Brush Wattlebird (Anthochaera chrysoptera chrysoptera (Eastern race. I've no idea on the 2nd bird for obvious reasons lol, though a lovely capture. Lasty the Plover, while many folks call them that Trace is again correct that it's not. It is a Masked Lapwing (Vanellus miles).

There is 2 races of Lapwing, the other is the Spur-winged Lapwing (Vanellus novaehollandiae) as the name suggests it has a sharp pointed shoulder spur but the Masked Lapwing also has these too. The main difference is the black banding on the back of the neck and the Masked Lapwing has much larger wattles.

Wow very informative post Mitcon, very much appreciated. Ill be sure to name the Masked Lapwing correctly from now on :P. Thanks for all the comments, really gives me more motivation to get out there.