Quite true. I remember attending a Vincent Versace talk as part of some photoclub that I never bothered joining where everyone dogged the guy out to find out what his gear was. It was the one time that the notepads came out. In the elevator down, I told a lady that the gear doesent matter and she was quite appalled in disbelief of it. They all do the same thing; I have 10x more speeding tickets from my white pickup truck than my bright orange sports car.
For the record; I'm going to get an EOS R when either 1/ they offer a pancake lens 2/ it becomes a useful functional upgrade to my much loved 5d4.
If you don't mind my asking; how does one get so close to these feisty little birds? Are you using some sort of hunting shelter?
A few years ago I made the effort to chop out a part of the roof of a small barn attic and add a turret of sorts that upon stepping on a stool puts me at eye level to a rigidly mounted gimbal that the (then) 300 lens was suspended from. I made sure there was always food around and over a period of time many visitors would come. There is a nice group of trees there and and the lighting is appropriate. I have, way back, posted shots of this very tedious project that has worked exceedingly well. There is a heater, and an easy chair to read in while watching a monitor that displays the view up where the camera resides. The photo is the only one I could find of the unfinished job. This chickadee shot is one out of maybe 3 or 4 hundred that was acceptable - no AF is capable of this, it takes time and planning, that was shot from there. The nuthatch was shot from there too. BTW - shot with the terrible, much maligned 6D.
So, for your best close shots some sort of hidden shooting is the way to go but one can luck out anywhere, anytime, as demonstrated by the fox, provided you have your gear ready like grandpa used to have his gun ready, loaded, standing in the back entrance until grandma blew her top.
I need decent gear but not the best to get very acceptable photos,
provided I put in the effort. It's my wife who's always pushing me to spend more to upgrade!
Wonder why we don't see more photos in these threads? Specs are easier to brow beat with and impress some folk more.
Jack