Northern Rough-winged Swallow In A Wasatch Mountain Canyon

Northern Rough-winged Swallow perched – Nikon D500, f8, 1/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

Two days ago I had hoped to find the male Broad-tailed Hummingbird on his favorite perch again but he wasn’t around. Instead I had two Northern Rough-winged Swallows fly in and they perched about 15 feet away from where I normally find the little male hummingbird. One of the swallows was so close I had trouble fitting it into the frame and the other had bright branches above and below it but since I don’t see this swallow species all that often I felt I had to at least try and photograph them and somehow create a pleasing composition.

Of the photos that I took that morning I liked this one Rough-winged Swallow the most because I could see its entire body while the other swallow had the out of focus perch in front of the body of the bird.

The background in this photo is out of focus willows that are near a creek. I cropped this photo in such a way that it removed the out of focus, bright branches that were above and below the swallow.

Northern Rough-winged Swallows are migratory and I only see them while they are here in Utah during their breeding season. They aren’t as colorful as Tree, Cliff, Violet-green and Barn Swallows but I find their subtle coloring very appealing.

I had fun up in the Wasatch Mountain canyons yesterday morning too but didn’t have time to process any of the Cedar Waxwing images I took for various reasons. I used to have more free time long ago when I photographed mostly flowers and insects until bird photography tickled my fancy, set my passion on fire and my free time seemed to just disappear.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Northern Rough-winged Swallow photos plus facts and information about this species.