{"id":4849,"date":"2012-04-20T04:00:43","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T10:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=4849"},"modified":"2025-05-20T12:37:05","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T17:37:05","slug":"yellow-headed-blackbird-and-a-midge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/04\/20\/yellow-headed-blackbird-and-a-midge\/","title":{"rendered":"Yellow-headed Blackbird and a Midge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Yellow-headedYellow-headed Blackbird male about to grab a midge from the air – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/2000, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This Yellow-headed Blackbird and a midge image was taken this past Monday at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> in northern Utah. The midges have hatched and are flying around near the auto tour route. I’ve written about the importance of midges before in a post titled\u00a0 Midges and Birds – Food for Thought<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Yellow-headed Blackbirds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) can perch on cattails, reeds, rushes, or mounds of vegetation and snatch midges right out of the air. Capturing it with my camera was a treat on Monday, that is a midge to the right of the blackbird’s bill.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Yellow-headed Blackbirds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) can perch on cattails, reeds, rushes or mounds of vegetation and snatch Midges right out of the air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":145610,"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":[124,27,1148,5736,26,427],"tags":[4004,4021,3813,3483,4366,781,4062,4094,4365,540,165,4095,4178,1386],"class_list":["post-4849","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-midges","category-utah","category-yellow-headed-blackbird","tag-adult","tag-bird-photography","tag-blackbird","tag-blackbirds","tag-cattails","tag-chironomidae","tag-male","tag-marsh","tag-midge","tag-midges","tag-spring","tag-wetlands","tag-xanthocephalus-xanthocephalus","tag-yellow-headed-blackbird"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t