Best focus settings for flying squirrels?

[OleAas]

Hi! I have taken a lot of pictures of squirrels jumping against the camera, but always with prefocusing.

When I saw some similar pictures shot with follow focus on Canon R3 with RF 100-500, I wanted to test if my Sony a9ii (ILCE-9M2) and Sony 200-600mm lens could do the same using tracking (not pre focus). 

Can anyone suggest the best AF settings in this kind of scenario?

Here's a similar picture shot by me with a Canon R7 and RF 100-400mm. Focus is on the hind legs, so maybe my technique was not good enough, or maybe the camera/lens-combination couldn't keep up. Lets see if my Sony can! 

[MarlonUk1]

doesn't the animal auto focus work with this kind of shots?

[interceptor121]

I think the R3 with 30 fps will do better than your A9II

Subjects moving towards you in the frame are the trickiest ones for any camera

In terms of settings you can push sensitivity to the max and frame rate to 20fps and hope for the best