{"id":25298,"date":"2015-06-07T05:18:25","date_gmt":"2015-06-07T11:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=25298"},"modified":"2025-05-20T13:07:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T18:07:16","slug":"female-yellow-headed-blackbirds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/06\/07\/female-yellow-headed-blackbirds\/","title":{"rendered":"Female Yellow-headed Blackbirds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-wp-editing=\"1\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-145633 size-full\" title=\"Female Yellow-headed Blackbird with food for her chicks perched in a Willow at Farmington Bay WMA\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-female-prey-mia-mcpherson-0874.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-female-prey-mia-mcpherson-0874.jpg\" alt=\"Female Yellow-headed Blackbird with food for her chicks perched in a Willow at Farmington Bay WMA\" width=\"850\" height=\"660\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27660%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20660%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27660%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-female-prey-mia-mcpherson-0874-200x155.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-female-prey-mia-mcpherson-0874-400x311.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-female-prey-mia-mcpherson-0874-600x466.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-female-prey-mia-mcpherson-0874-768x596.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-female-prey-mia-mcpherson-0874.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Female Yellow-headed Blackbird with food for her chicks &#8211; Nikon D200, f6.3, 1\/640, ISO 250, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Female Yellow-headed Blackbirds are often overlooked by casual viewers and bird photographers because they aren&#8217;t as flashy as the males. But that isn&#8217;t a bad thing. Their drabber coloration makes them less conspicuous and draws less attention than the males which in turn is helpful when nesting, brooding, and rearing her young.<\/p>\n<p>This female was taking prey to her young when I photographed her in June of 2009 at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.utahbirds.org\/counties\/davis\/FarmingtonBay.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Farmington Bay WMA<\/span><\/a> which was before I had moved to Utah and was only here on a short visit.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-145636 size-full\" title=\"Female Yellow-headed Blackbird looking for prey, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-female-mia-mcpherson-1205.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-female-mia-mcpherson-1205.jpg\" alt=\"Female Yellow-headed Blackbird looking for prey, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah\" width=\"850\" height=\"607\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20607%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-female-mia-mcpherson-1205-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-female-mia-mcpherson-1205-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-female-mia-mcpherson-1205-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-female-mia-mcpherson-1205-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-female-mia-mcpherson-1205-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-female-mia-mcpherson-1205.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">A female Yellow-headed Blackbird looking for prey &#8211; Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But as a bird photographer I realize I should photograph them more often than I do because they are quite lovely even if their colors are subdued compared to the males. The female above was photographed in May of this year at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fws.gov\/refuge\/bear_river_migratory_bird_refuge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/yellow-headed-blackbird-images\/\">here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Yellow-headed Blackbird photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Female Yellow-headed Blackbirds are often overlooked by casual viewers and bird photographers because they aren&#8217;t as flashy as the males.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":145633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[124,27,1148,1022,697,26,427],"tags":[4004,3813,3483,4070,4094,4106,4095,6107,4178,1386],"class_list":["post-25298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-utah","category-yellow-headed-blackbird","tag-adult","tag-blackbird","tag-blackbirds","tag-female","tag-marsh","tag-prey","tag-wetlands","tag-willow","tag-xanthocephalus-xanthocephalus","tag-yellow-headed-blackbird"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- 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