Neighbors

I have some little neighbors that come by my house nearly every day. Sometimes they chatter amongst themselves, sometimes they just sit outside my window and watch the goings on in the street. They seem very friendly, but also very shy---they leave abruptly if startled, but always come back and settle down again after a while. Whenever I notice them I try to be particularly quiet in my room; the walls inside are thin, so I assume the outside ones are as well and I don't want to make them nervous. I have, however, been attempting to take photos of their little parties outside my window for several days now with no success. In part, I think, because my camera is old and does not function as quickly as it used to, and in part because I'm not as stealthy with a camera as I'd like to be. Certainly not stealthy as a jackal. Although if I were a jackal there's no way they'd come back to my window.

So, any suggestions on how to take quick photos of three small, rather fat, brown birds and one large blue bird that are all quite camera-shy?