Male MacGillivray’s Warbler In The Wasatch Mountains

Male MacGillivray’s Warbler in the mountains – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

There are bird species here in Utah that for various reasons I have had trouble getting decent photos of and one of those species is the shy, skulking MacGillivray’s Warbler.

The first warbler species I ever photographed in Utah actually was a MacGillivray’s Warbler at Silver Lake in Brighton on July 25, 2008 which was taken on my first bird photography trip to Utah prior to moving here from Florida. They were horrible MacGillivray’s Warbler images because the bird was back lit, the setting was cluttered, the sun was high and I never got great eye contact from the beautiful male I found in the willows next to the lake. It has bothered me that in all the time since then I still hadn’t gotten any decent images of MacGillivray’s Warblers… until yesterday.

Alert male MacGillivray’s Warbler – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

For a few seconds this handsome warbler was visible to me in the Wasatch Mountains when the breeze blew the leaves away which gave me a clear view of a nemesis bird. It was the MacGillivray’s Warbler’s song that that gave away his presence and I’m thrilled that it did because I finally have some decent photos of this species.

I hope that I have broken the nearly eleven year dry spell that I kind of felt I was under with this species and that now I’ll be able to take many more images of them.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my MacGillivray’s Warbler photos plus facts and information about this species.