If you like video tutorials, there is one by National Geographic photographer Chris Bray HERE . Hopefully you won't be thrown by his Australian accent! 
It might also be worthwhile going to your local library website and searching the catalogue for Lynda.com. This website has a huge range for video tutorials by excellent instructors that cover every aspect of photography from the basics to advanced topics, and from hardware to post production techniques. Normally access to this is by subscription, but many libraries offer their members free access - it's a great resource.
First attempt at shutter priority 1/320, ISO 3200, apterture automatically set itself, but it was f16.
@Wayne3 wrote:First attempt at shutter priority 1/320, ISO 3200, apterture automatically set itself, but it was f16.
Hi Wayne:
First, congratulations on stepping out of the SCN comfort zone and trying new methods. Like all new experiences there is much to evaluate - as Henri Cartier-Bresson, the famous photographer said " Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst."
Deciding whether to go for M, Av or Tv as a means of controlling the image is the first, and one of the biggest decisions when engaging in photographing a subject type. The image exposure looks good with a decent amount of contrast and colour saturation, so the overall exposure settings work for me.
There are a couple of issues that bear further consideration.
1. The amount of noise (as Bill pointed out)
2. The movement of the head of the bird (is it a woodpecker?) is slight, but noticeable. That may not be a bad thing, but with just the slight movement, it neither gives us the bird's eye in clear focus, nor indicates the fast movement of the head against the still body to emphasize the speed of pecking - either of which is a valid artistic effect.
Looking at the EXIF data these are the settings of your shot:
Aperture Shutter Speed ISO Focal Length
f/16, 1/320sec, 3200, 400mm
Consider the principles of the exposure triangle where each change in any of the settings by one unit alters the exposure by 1 EV (exposure value). An EV represents a doubling (+1EV) or halving (-1EV) of the the exposure, and all of the values for aperture, shutter and ISO are aligned with them.
- If I reduce the value of the f-number by 1 stop, I get less DoF but more light, i.e. +1 EV
- If I increase the value of the f-number 1 stop I get more DoF, but less light, i.e. -1 EV
- If I increase the shutter speed by 1 stop, I get less movement and less light i.e. -1 EV
- If I decrease the shutter speed by 1 stop I get more movement, and more light +1 EV
- If I double the ISO value, I get more noise, but more light sensitivity, i.e. +1 EV
- If I halve the ISO value I get less noise, but less light sensitivity, i.e. -1 EV
The point is, using EV units allows you to switch up and down the values between the three variables using the consistent units of exposure, thus you would get the same exposure but different results with the following sets of modified values.
Aperture Shutter Speed ISO Change Result
f/16 1/320 sec 3200 Original settings
f/8 1/640 sec 3200 Av +1EV, SS -1EV & ISO - 0EV: shallower DoF, faster shutter, same ISO
f/8 1/320 sec 1600 Av +1EV, SS 0EV & ISO - 1EV: shallower DoF, same shutter, lower ISO - less noise
f/5.6 1/640 sec 1600 Av +2EV, SS - 1EV & ISO - 1EV: shallower DoF, faster shutter, lower ISO - less noise
Gauging Aperture and DoF:
Making sure your subject is in focus, but with just the right DoF is all about the aperture. Since you were taking your shot at some distance with a long telephoto three things come into play when considering your DoF:
a) The further the subject, the deeper the DoF
b) The longer the focal length, the shallower the DoF
c) The smaller the f-value, the shallower the DoF
The trick here is to decide (often quickly) how these things will impact on your choice of settings.
Like Waddizzle, by an large, I shoot wildlife in Av mode: even birds. This may seem counter-intuitive as one wants to control the movement of the bird, but very often, as in this case, you want to give some separation between the subject and its surroundings. (That is where using spot focus becomes helpful, so you can isolate the subject from the clutter.) However, the following will hopefully make sense, even if you choose Tv mode.
Unlike Bill, (and I respect his choice there) I personally let the camera choose the ISO, but I keep it in a conservative range - normally no higher than 800, especially considering this is an older camera with a less sophisticated sensor, however for this exercise we will stick with a maximum ISO of 1600.
What that does is allow me to consider just two setting in my viewfinder: Tv and Av. I can change either one (so this could work for Av and Tv mode too), but being immediately aware of the effect on the other.
At f/16 you are going to have quite a deep DoF, some of which you do not necessarily need, my first reaction would be to have reduced the f-value to f/8 (+1EV) or f/5.6 (+2EV). That leaves flexibility to improve shutter speed and/or ISO.
In this case, if I had an ISO set to a maximum of 1600, then I could select either of the following combinations:
f/16 1/320 sec 3200 Original settings
f/8 1/320 sec 1600 Av +1EV, SS 0EV & ISO -1EV: shallower DoF, same SS but less noise
f/5.6 1/640 sec 1600 Av +2EV, SS -1EV & ISO -1EV: shallow DoF, stop movement, less noise
If I was shooting in M mode I could set both aperture and SS and let the camera sort out the ISO, e.g.
f/5.6 1/160 sec 400 Av +2EV, SS +1EV & ISO -3EV: shallow DoF, increase movement, v low noise
f/8 1/160 sec 800 Av +1EV, SS +1EV & ISO -2EV: shallow DoF, increase movement, less noise
As you can see there are many choices, and practise and experience will help you make the operation simpler over time.
The trick now is take a lot of photos and experiment, then evaluate your images.
