Nikon fans hate this kind of comment and they will do everything possible to crash this reviewer, Nikon officials ignore it and Nikon's PR and youtube guys & girls never mention it. But this was one of the main reasons I moved from Nikon Z to Canon EOS R5.
I missed soooo many shots like these because of the poor Z6 & Z7 AF performance with unexpected action. One time a big predator bird was sitting extremely well visible, -like posing- in front of me at somewhere between 8 and 15 meters while I was trying to get the bird in focus. It just could not focus... That was the first time I was considering changing brands.
AF frustrations with Nikon Z as I had, by someone else:
After nearly 2 years with EOS R5, this isn't a ML problem though, for me it was a Z7, Z6 & Z7II issue that I got bored and frustrated about after 2 years of daily professional and private use and that I do NOT encounter with my EOS R5.A demonstration of how the Nikon Z9 and mirrorless cameras struggle to focus on a close subject that is out of focus with telephoto lenses. This is an issue to bird photographers mostly dealing with small subjects and potentially busy backgrounds.
I never handled a Z9, but I did expect this kind of AF issues would have been solved totally with the pro Z camera line.
From Nikon Z6 & Z7 to EOS R5...
A sample situation why I moved from Nikon Z to Canon EOS R5...