{"id":49732,"date":"2017-12-08T05:44:31","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T12:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=49732"},"modified":"2024-07-10T19:12:18","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T00:12:18","slug":"mountain-chickadee-in-ophir-canyon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/12\/08\/mountain-chickadee-in-ophir-canyon\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountain Chickadee in Ophir Canyon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week while photographing birds in Ophir Canyon I was able to take a short series of photos of a Mountain Chickadee perched in a juniper right after I photographed some bushtits<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"MountainMountain Chickadee perched in Juniper – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The sky was a plain blue, the sun was a bit higher than I care for and the chickadee was further away than I like but I couldn’t resist photographing the bird because I liked how it was framed by the juniper and I love having opportunities to aim my lens at these small, white, gray and black birds that move crazy fast.<\/p>\n

Some of the other birds I have photographed in this canyon in the West Desert are Red-tailed Hawks, Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jays, Steller’s Jays, Golden Eagles and Mountain Bluebirds and the first mammals I photographed there when I visited Utah from Florida in 2008 was a small herd of Mule Deer.<\/p>\n

One of the problems with photographing in Ophir Canyon and other canyons on the west side of the mountain ranges here is that it takes a while for the sun to rise high enough in the morning to reach the floor of the canyon which can mean that the light is somewhat harsh by the time a subject can be lit up well.<\/p>\n

Chickadees are reputedly named for their calls which sound like “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” and they do sound like that but I can detect a slight difference between Mountain Chickadees and the Black-capped Chickadees that also live in my area of Utah.<\/p>\n

Listen to the calls and song of Mountain Chickadees here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

I often see and hear Black-capped Chickadees when I am at home or in my neighborhood but I don’t recall ever seeing a Mountain Chickadee at home. Maybe I just need to look a bit harder for them. Where I do see them most often is up in canyons and while in the mountains that I travel to in Utah, Montana and Idaho.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Last week while photographing birds in Ophir Canyon I was able to take a short series of photos of a Mountain Chickadee perched in a juniper right after I photographed some bushtits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":130449,"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":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,2782,4886,358,26,1314],"tags":[4004,2069,3940,6273,6274,3914,2780,4104,2779,373],"class_list":["post-49732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-mountain-chickadees","category-ophir-canyon","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","tag-adult","tag-blue-sky","tag-canyon","tag-chickadee","tag-chickadees","tag-juniper","tag-mountain-chickadee","tag-perched","tag-poecile-gambeli","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/mountain-chickadee-ophir-mia-mcpherson-0115.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-cW8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":61515,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/11\/19\/focusing-on-photographing-foraging-mountain-chickadees\/","url_meta":{"origin":49732,"position":0},"title":"Focusing On Photographing Foraging Mountain Chickadees","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Two mornings ago a small flock of Mountain Chickadees came in to forage on the seeds in some Douglas Fir trees and I had fun trying to keep up with the small dynamos.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Foraging Mountain Chickadee hanging on a fir cone, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/mountain-chickadee-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2929.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/mountain-chickadee-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2929.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/mountain-chickadee-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2929.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/mountain-chickadee-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2929.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":73773,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/09\/16\/mountain-chickadee-and-changing-seasons\/","url_meta":{"origin":49732,"position":1},"title":"Mountain Chickadee And Changing Seasons","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"When this Mountain Chickadee came into view it was hanging from a juniper bough with two Douglas Fir seeds in its bill it appeared to be looking around for a place to cache its food.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mountain Chickadee with a Douglas Fir seed in its bill, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/mountain-chickadee-adult-juniper-mia-mcpherson-9107.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/mountain-chickadee-adult-juniper-mia-mcpherson-9107.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/mountain-chickadee-adult-juniper-mia-mcpherson-9107.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/mountain-chickadee-adult-juniper-mia-mcpherson-9107.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53569,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/08\/13\/black-capped-chickadees-photographed-in-a-mountain-canyon\/","url_meta":{"origin":49732,"position":2},"title":"Black-capped Chickadees Photographed In A Mountain Canyon","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I spent some time yesterday morning observing, photographing and enjoying the songs and calls of Black-capped Chickadees in a high mountain canyon. Chickadees always bring a smile to my lips and yesterday was no exception.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-capped Chickadee about to take flight, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-taking-flight-mia-mcpherson-4428.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-taking-flight-mia-mcpherson-4428.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-taking-flight-mia-mcpherson-4428.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-taking-flight-mia-mcpherson-4428.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":73416,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/09\/04\/two-black-capped-chickadee-photos-from-this-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":49732,"position":3},"title":"Two Black-capped Chickadee Photos From This Week","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 4, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm happy to have had these two little Black-capped Chickadees in my viewfinder this week. I enjoy seeing, hearing, and photographing these perky primarily black and white birds.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-capped Chickadee close up in the Wasatch Mountains, East Canyon, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-close-up-mia-mcpherson-1218.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-close-up-mia-mcpherson-1218.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-close-up-mia-mcpherson-1218.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Two days ago this Black-capped Chickadee and several other others were moving through a willow thicket in a canyon in the Wasatch Mountains where I had been focusing on photographing warblers, tanagers, and vireos.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-capped Chickadee calling, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-singing-mia-mcpherson-3538.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-singing-mia-mcpherson-3538.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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