{"id":52258,"date":"2018-05-25T04:54:34","date_gmt":"2018-05-25T10:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=52258"},"modified":"2025-10-26T06:10:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T11:10:14","slug":"green-tailed-towhee-singing-in-a-mountain-canyon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/05\/25\/green-tailed-towhee-singing-in-a-mountain-canyon\/","title":{"rendered":"Green-tailed Towhee Singing In A Mountain Canyon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Green-tailedGreen-tailed Towhee on a flowering branch – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I had fun yesterday morning photographing a male Green-tailed Towhee singing in a mountain canyon, this was a bird I heard before I spotted him perched on a flowering branch.<\/p>\n

I had been photographing a pair of American Goldfinches eating dandelion seeds and when they flew off I started driving up the hill, saw this bird and hoped he’d stay on the branch long enough for me to take some photos of him.<\/p>\n

\"Green-tailedGreen-tailed Towhee singing on a flowering branch – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The beautiful bird cooperated and I took a nice series of images of him singing away in a beautiful setting. His green tail sure showed up nicely!<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Green-tailed Towhee singing on a May morning – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/640, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The Green-tailed Towhee<\/span><\/a> stuck so I drove my Jeep up the hill a little bit to get a slightly different angle of light and background.<\/p>\n

I do wish the out of focus branch at the top left was in the frame but I liked the bird’s pose in this frame and how the light seemed to make the towhee glow against the green background.<\/p>\n

I’m delighted that I was able to show my Mom around this mountain canyon yesterday, we had so much fun. I have more photos to share from our last trip up to the mountains another day.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

I had fun yesterday morning photographing a male Green-tailed Towhee singing in a mountain canyon, this was a bird I heard before I spotted him perched on a flowering branch. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":161802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[27,2212,1731,26],"tags":[4004,4897,3940,2158,6518,2217,5370,3905,4062,4069,2303,6698,6188,4179,855,4195,165,5908,4854],"class_list":["post-52258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-green-tailed-towhees","category-summit-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-branch","tag-canyon","tag-courtship-display","tag-flowering","tag-flowers","tag-forest","tag-green-tailed-towhee","tag-male","tag-mountains","tag-pipilo-chlorurus","tag-serviceberry","tag-shrub","tag-singing-2","tag-sparrow","tag-sparrows","tag-spring","tag-towhee","tag-towhees"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/green-tailed-towhee-mia-mcpherson-2188.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dAS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":47043,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/06\/01\/green-tailed-towhee-singing-in-the-wasatch-mountains\/","url_meta":{"origin":52258,"position":0},"title":"Green-tailed Towhee Singing in the Wasatch Mountains","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"One good bird can make the the day when photographing birds in the field, yesterday that bird was a male Green-tailed Towhee I spotted perched on a shrub in a canyon in the Wasatch Mountains.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Singing Green-tailed Towhee portrait, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/green-tailed-towhee-singing-portrait-mia-mcpherson-2737.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/green-tailed-towhee-singing-portrait-mia-mcpherson-2737.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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"Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Green-tailed Towhee perched on a Utah Serviceberry, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/green-tailed-towhee-flowering-tree-mia-mcpherson-3052.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/green-tailed-towhee-flowering-tree-mia-mcpherson-3052.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/green-tailed-towhee-flowering-tree-mia-mcpherson-3052.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/green-tailed-towhee-flowering-tree-mia-mcpherson-3052.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/green-tailed-towhee-singing-tree-top-mia-mcpherson-9448.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/green-tailed-towhee-singing-tree-top-mia-mcpherson-9448.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/green-tailed-towhee-singing-tree-top-mia-mcpherson-9448.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/green-tailed-towhee-singing-tree-top-mia-mcpherson-9448.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":106065,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/09\/10\/young-green-tailed-towhee-in-a-serviceberry\/","url_meta":{"origin":52258,"position":3},"title":"Young Green-tailed Towhee In A Serviceberry","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I found this young Green-tailed Towhee perched in a serviceberry high in a mountain canyon on a sunny morning on the last day of July this year.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Young Green-tailed Towhee posing in a serviceberry, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/green-tailed-towhee-young-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-9984.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/green-tailed-towhee-young-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-9984.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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ID","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/bird-identification\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Green-tailed and Spotted Towhee comparison, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/green-tailed-and-spotted-towhee-young-mia-mcpherson-4203.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/green-tailed-and-spotted-towhee-young-mia-mcpherson-4203.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/green-tailed-and-spotted-towhee-young-mia-mcpherson-4203.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/green-tailed-and-spotted-towhee-young-mia-mcpherson-4203.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51947,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/05\/03\/im-looking-forward-to-photographing-green-tailed-towhees\/","url_meta":{"origin":52258,"position":5},"title":"I’m Looking Forward to Photographing Green-tailed Towhees","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Green-tailed Towhees are migratory so I don't see them year round in Utah like I do their close relatives the Spotted Towhees. Green-tailed Towhees spend their winters in the southern most parts of the U.S. and in Mexico and I miss seeing a hearing them while they are away.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Green-tailed Towhee portrait, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/green-tailed-towhee-close-up-mia-mcpherson-2751.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/green-tailed-towhee-close-up-mia-mcpherson-2751.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/green-tailed-towhee-close-up-mia-mcpherson-2751.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/green-tailed-towhee-close-up-mia-mcpherson-2751.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\/52258","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=52258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}