{"id":52687,"date":"2018-06-20T05:04:14","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T11:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=52687"},"modified":"2025-05-19T11:53:46","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T16:53:46","slug":"focusing-on-photographing-juvenile-mountain-bluebirds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/06\/20\/focusing-on-photographing-juvenile-mountain-bluebirds\/","title":{"rendered":"Focusing On Photographing Juvenile Mountain Bluebirds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Juvenile

Juvenile Mountain Bluebird with adult male watching over it<\/p><\/div>\n

Juvenile Mountain Bluebird with adult male watching over it – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday morning I drove up to the Wasatch Mountains<\/span><\/a> and spent the morning driving very slowly through a canyon looking for birds and wildflowers to photograph. I also had a deep-seated need to shut out the vulgar, un-American things going on in our country. I needed to relax.<\/p>\n

On the last four or five trips up to the canyon I have been seeing juvenile Mountain Bluebirds but they were either on the wrong side of the road in bad light or they were extremely skittish and took off before I could even raise my lens. Yesterday morning I spent time focusing on finding and photographing the bluebird family.<\/p>\n

Luck was on my side when I found the family of Mountain Bluebirds in good light plus they were close enough to take quality photos of them, first the male then the female and the juveniles.<\/p>\n

\"MountainMountain Bluebirds in a Wasatch Mountain Canyon – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The light was variable because of clouds floating overhead and there was a bit of a breeze so there were some photos that didn’t come out the way I would have liked but this series of images taken while the birds were on a Utah Serviceberry bush pleased me. In these first two photos I like having the out of focus male Mountain Bluebird in the background as it kept an eye on this juvenile and the three others that were nearby. I couldn’t get enough depth of field to have both birds in focus so I went with having the juvenile sharply in focus.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Mountain Bluebird perched on a Utah Serviceberry bush – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When the adult Mountain Bluebird took off the juvenile stayed on the serviceberry for a few seconds longer so I took a series of images of it perched alone on the bush. Right after I took this photo another juvenile bluebird flew in and chased this bird off.<\/p>\n

I’m glad I had time with this family of Mountain Bluebirds yesterday and that being up in the canyons helped my frame of mind at least temporarily.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Luck was on my side when I found the family of Mountain Bluebirds in good light plus they were close enough to take quality photos of them, first the male then the female and the juveniles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":145186,"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":[27,1369,1731,26,773],"tags":[4004,6523,5933,4880,6585,3940,8302,4071,4062,228,4069,8301,8300,4339,6522],"class_list":["post-52687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-mountain-bluebirds","category-summit-county-utah","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-adult","tag-amelanchier-utahensis","tag-bluebird","tag-bluebirds","tag-bush","tag-canyon","tag-focusing","tag-juvenile","tag-male","tag-mountain-bluebird","tag-mountains","tag-photograph","tag-photographing","tag-sialia-currucoides","tag-utah-serviceberry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-adult-mia-mcpherson-4334.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dHN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":63642,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/31\/juvenile-mountain-bluebird-in-the-wasatch-mountains\/","url_meta":{"origin":52687,"position":0},"title":"Juvenile Mountain Bluebird In The Wasatch Mountains","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 31, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I can't imagine not seeing these beautiful Mountain Bluebirds feeding, breeding and raising their young in the mountains that are close to where I live.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Mountain Bluebird perched in a Chokecherry tree, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountian-bluebird-juvenile-perched-mia-mcpherson-5679-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountian-bluebird-juvenile-perched-mia-mcpherson-5679-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Bluebird juvenile perched on a sagebrush stump, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-perched-on-sage-stump-mia-mcpherson-5189.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-perched-on-sage-stump-mia-mcpherson-5189.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-perched-on-sage-stump-mia-mcpherson-5189.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-perched-on-sage-stump-mia-mcpherson-5189.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-5268.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-5268.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-5268.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-5268.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47472,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/06\/28\/mountain-bluebirds-with-juveniles-in-summit-county\/","url_meta":{"origin":52687,"position":3},"title":"Mountain Bluebirds with Juveniles in Summit County","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The young Mountain Bluebird turned and snatched the cricket from the male quickly before any of its siblings could reach the branches.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Mountain Bluebird feeding a cricket to a juvenile, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-male-fledgling-mia-mcpherson-4314.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-male-fledgling-mia-mcpherson-4314.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-male-fledgling-mia-mcpherson-4314.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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