{"id":24963,"date":"2015-06-01T03:45:49","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T09:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=24963"},"modified":"2025-11-08T06:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T12:29:07","slug":"western-kingbirds-on-the-wing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/06\/01\/western-kingbirds-on-the-wing\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Kingbirds On The Wing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WesternWestern Kingbird adult landing on sagebrush – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/2000, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I had fun photographing Western Kingbirds again yesterday on Antelope Island State Park and hours later I was still hearing their calls<\/span><\/a> in my mind. They chatter and squeak a lot and they also spend a lot of time taking off and landing. Yesterday I focused on landing, take offs and flight shots. The sagebrush in the image above seems to be a favorite perch.<\/p>\n

\"WesternWestern Kingbird adult landing on a sign post – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

But they also like fence posts and sign posts too. This Western Kingbird came in to land on the sign post and judging by the position of its feet I think it almost missed the landing.<\/p>\n

\"WesternWestern Kingbird on the wing – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/4000, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I did get a few flight shots yesterday but I liked this one the most because of the wing position, the head turn and the eye contact. That over the wing look gets me every time. I always enjoy getting photographs of Western Kingbirds on the wing.<\/p>\n

Life is good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Western Kingbird photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had fun photographing Western Kingbirds again yesterday on Antelope Island State Park and hours later I was still hearing their calls in my mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":163140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,27,1022,26,534],"tags":[4004,2519,11480,4021,4098,4052,3808,4884,4122,9070,3791,3772,4123,4282,6384,4057,3792,4183,4411],"class_list":["post-24963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-utah","category-western-kingbirds","tag-adult","tag-artemisia-tridentata","tag-big-sagebrush","tag-bird-photography","tag-desert","tag-flight","tag-flycatcher","tag-flycatchers","tag-flying","tag-island","tag-kingbird","tag-kingbirds","tag-landing","tag-lift-off","tag-on-the-wing","tag-sagebrush","tag-take-off","tag-tyrannus-verticalis","tag-western-kingbird"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/western-kingbird-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-8052.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-6uD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24569,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/05\/26\/western-kingbirds-in-all-kinds-of-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":24963,"position":0},"title":"Western Kingbirds in All Kinds of Light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"By the third or fourth visit to the area where the Western Kingbirds were located the sun was shining and the light was great. I felt like singing along with the kingbird to celebrate the clearing sky.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Western Kingbird wing lift in low light, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/western-kingbird-wing-lift-mia-mcpherson-5044.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/western-kingbird-wing-lift-mia-mcpherson-5044.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/western-kingbird-wing-lift-mia-mcpherson-5044.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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delightful to have light and a six-pack (plus) of birds out on Antelope Island yesterday to test my new Nikon D7100.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sun kissed Willet, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-scratching-mia-mcpherson-1908.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-scratching-mia-mcpherson-1908.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-scratching-mia-mcpherson-1908.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Three days ago I was caught off guard when this Western Kingbird flew in and hovered up close to me, almost too close actually.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Western Kingbird up close on Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/western-kingbird-close-up-mia-mcpherson-2917.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/western-kingbird-close-up-mia-mcpherson-2917.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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A Mere Optical Illusion","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This image kind of looks like I photographed a two-headed juvenile Western Kingbird but it is really an optical illusion.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Western Kingbird siblings, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/western-kingbird-juveniles-mia-mcpherson-1730.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/western-kingbird-juveniles-mia-mcpherson-1730.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/western-kingbird-juveniles-mia-mcpherson-1730.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/western-kingbird-juveniles-mia-mcpherson-1730.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}