Setophaga petechia
Yellow Warblers are small, uniformly yellow warblers with unmarked faces, rounded heads, tiny bills and jet black eyes. The males have reddish streaks on their underparts.
Eight days ago I photographed my first male Yellow Warbler of the year and two days ago I had some luck with my first females of the season.
Three days ago I was able to take my first of season Yellow Warbler photos when a male came up close to where I sat in my Jeep in a high mountain canyon.
Two days ago my pulse quickened when I saw and heard my first of the season Yellow Warblers while looking for birds to photograph high up in the Wasatch Mountains.
I haven't seen a Yellow Warbler in northern Utah for sometime now and it is pretty safe to say that these birds has taken wing and have headed to warmer climes for the winter.
When this hatch year Yellow Warbler popped out into an open area of a willow thicket in a beam of sunlight I was happy to take its photo.
Some birds that are molting can look a little odd and this molting male Yellow Warbler with a stubby little tails fits that description perfectly.
Yellow Warblers are small birds that look like feathered rays of sunshine that have come to earth and I am always delighted to photograph them
While the male Yellow Warbler is small in the frame in both of these photos I think the inclusion of habitat provides visual interest and appeal.
Like the chokecherries I wrote about yesterday it seems that because of our wetter than normal spring the serviceberries are also doing very well so there should be plentiful fruit for the birds to feast on before they migrate this fall.
Before too long I expect to hear the "peep-peep" calls of Yellow Warbler chicks begging to be fed by their parents but in the meantime I am having a blast photographing the adults that I have been seeing.
The other bird I photographed that day in the high Uintas was a gorgeous male Yellow Warbler foraging in an aspen tree very close to where I sat inside a "mobile" blind at the edge of a dirt road.
The nicest surprise of the morning was when a female Belted Kingfisher perched on a branch close to a creek and the road.
On my second trip up into the mountains last week I was focused on a Barn Swallow perched in bushes near a creek when I caught a bit of movement in the bushes below the swallow and spotted this Yellow Warbler.
All in all, as 2018 comes to a close I realize how fortunate I am to see all the birds that I do throughout the year as a bird photographer, to be able to do what I love and to love my feathered subjects too.
I'm just posting this sweet, little Yellow Warbler this morning because I have been missing our summer birds. I have been missing all birds actually because it seems like forever since I have been out into the field.
I admit that it bothered me deeply that there was nothing that I could do for this Yellow Warbler as it has for the other injured birds I have seen throughout the years that I couldn't help.
I've had such an amazing time this year photographing Yellow Warblers in the Wasatch Mountains and I've enjoyed learning more about them and their behaviors since early May.
This spring and summer I have photographed Yellow Warblers primarily in mountainous riparian habitat so when I spotted one foraging in a Rough Cocklebur two days ago in the marshes at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge I was happy to take photos of it.
In the past week I have photographed so many birds in a Wasatch Mountain canyon that I thought I would share a group of them in a photo gallery.
Yellow Warblers are anything but mellow instead they are frenetic, hyperactive, frenzied, energetic and move so quickly they sometimes make me dizzy trying to track them with my long lens.
Imagine moving down a gravel road and seeing just a tiny flash of movement and light-colored plumage in a stand of green vegetation and trying to figure out if it is a bright leaf in the breeze or a fledgling Yellow Warbler in a split second.
Yesterday I had fun and frustration while photographing Yellow Warblers feeding their fledglings up in a Wasatch Mountain canyon, fun because it is always great to see them and frustration because of the setting they were in combined with a breeze.
Spending time photographing Yellow Warblers can try the patience of even the most patient photographer because they are so flighty, small and move quickly but it can also be rewarding when you get photos that you like.
This male Yellow Warbler stayed at the top of a willow for quite some time but I was never able to get a completely clear view of him because a light breeze was moving the out of focus willows in the foreground around.
Yesterday morning was spent up in the mountain canyons again photographing the birds I found at the higher elevations, the birds I saw the most of were Yellow Warblers, birds who look like sunshine on the wing.
When I had the opportunity to photograph a Yellow Warbler foraging in a flowering tree I jumped at the chance. Right after I took this photo the warbler snatched a tiny insect from the flowers but I couldn't make out what it was.
I was delighted to be able to photograph the female Yellow Warbler as she fed her young and to watch the fledgling as it fluttered its wings and gulped down the food the female brought it.
I have my ears and my eyes to thank for finding the Yellow Warblers and their young foraging near a creek in a canyon.
Someday I will get the images I desire of these dainty Yellow Warblers. Bird photography is challenging and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Last week while I was photographing a handsome Green-tailed Towhee in the Wasatch Mountains a bright Yellow Warbler caught my eyes when it landed on a flowering shrub.