{"id":52862,"date":"2018-07-02T06:00:20","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T12:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=52862"},"modified":"2025-10-23T13:25:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T18:25:45","slug":"photographing-yellow-warblers-feeding-their-fledglings-fun-and-frustration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/07\/02\/photographing-yellow-warblers-feeding-their-fledglings-fun-and-frustration\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographing Yellow Warblers Feeding Their Fledglings – Fun and Frustration"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MaleMale Yellow Warbler shining brightly in the willows<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday I had fun and frustration while photographing Yellow Warblers feeding their fledglings up in a Wasatch Mountain canyon, fun because it is always great to see them and frustration because of the setting they were in combined with a breeze.\u00a0 The breeze kept blowing the willows around which blocked clear views of the fledglings quite often.<\/p>\n

I saw male Yellow Warblers up high in the willows singing between foraging for their young. Even in the brightness of the willows these males shine brightly.<\/p>\n

\"FemaleFemale Yellow Warbler in a thicket<\/span><\/p>\n

The female Yellow Warblers are duller than the males though they have their own subtle beauty their coloration does make it much harder to spot them and they don’t go to the tops of the willows to sing like the males do.<\/p>\n

\"FledglingFledgling Yellow Warbler cleaning its bill<\/span><\/p>\n

The fledglings at this age have very little yellow in their plumage, basically only in their wings and tails. These fledglings are barely out of the nest though and soon they will have more yellow in their feathers. This little one was cleaning its bill when I photographed it in between willows bouncing around and obstructing my view.<\/p>\n

\"FledglingFledgling Yellow Warbler all fluffed up<\/span><\/p>\n

And here it is looking all fluffed up after it cleaned its bill. I struggled with the willows blowing in front of it.<\/p>\n

There was another fledgling nearby that the adults were feeding but I didn’t have the best angle on it to get a clear view. That was very frustrating.<\/p>\n

\"FledglingFledgling Yellow Warbler begging to be fed by a male<\/span><\/p>\n

I only had one series out of many where I had the adult and the fledgling in clear view while the adult attempted to feed its young…<\/p>\n

\"FledglingFledgling Yellow Warbler and missed prey<\/span><\/p>\n

What I mean by “attempted” is that the prey was dropped instead of going into the fledgling’s bill, it can be seen just below the bills of the birds in this photo. After this photo the adult looked down for the prey and soon flew off to forage for its young again.<\/p>\n

\"CloseClose up male Yellow Warbler<\/span><\/p>\n

I did spot a male Yellow Warbler who flew in close which gave me the opportunity to take a nice series of images of him with a painterly background in beautiful light.<\/p>\n

\"CuriousCurious look from a close male Yellow Warbler<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m sure it is just my imagination but to me this male looks a touch frazzled and he should be since he was making so many foraging runs to feed his hungry young. Of the feedings I saw most of them were delivered by the male.<\/p>\n

\"CloseClose male Yellow Warbler perched in willows and sunlight<\/span><\/p>\n

I am so happy that I was able to see and photograph these Yellow Warblers<\/span><\/a> and their fledglings yesterday even though it caused a ton of frustration for me, I may have to change my strategy while photographing these bright yellow warblers.<\/p>\n

Bird photography isn’t always easy though and I accept that.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Yesterday I had fun and frustration while photographing Yellow Warblers feeding their fledglings up in a Wasatch Mountain canyon, fun because it is always great to see them and frustration because of the setting they were in combined with a breeze. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":161352,"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":[27,2281,1731,26],"tags":[4004,740,5552,10838,4142,6616,13542,4040,4070,6614,4062,6615,8301,8300,2282,3888,3889,902,6492,3887],"class_list":["post-52862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-yellow-warblers","category-summit-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-begging","tag-bill","tag-cleaning","tag-close-up","tag-curious-look","tag-feaking","tag-feeding","tag-female","tag-fledling","tag-male","tag-missed-prey","tag-photograph","tag-photographing","tag-setophaga-aestiva","tag-warbler","tag-warblers","tag-willows","tag-wood-warblers","tag-yellow-warbler"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/yellow-warbler-fledgling-begging-mia-mcpherson-0952.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dKC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":52092,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/05\/12\/photographing-female-yellow-warblers-feeding-their-fledglings\/","url_meta":{"origin":52862,"position":0},"title":"Photographing Female Yellow Warblers Feeding Their Fledglings","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I was delighted to be able to photograph the female Yellow Warbler as she fed her young and to watch the fledgling as it fluttered its wings and gulped down the food the female brought it.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Yellow Warbler feeding her young, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/yellow-warbler-female-feeding-fledgling-mia-mcpherson-9679.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/yellow-warbler-female-feeding-fledgling-mia-mcpherson-9679.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":"Yellow Warbler in willows, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/yellow-warbler-willows-mia-mcpherson-1668.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/yellow-warbler-willows-mia-mcpherson-1668.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/yellow-warbler-willows-mia-mcpherson-1668.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/yellow-warbler-willows-mia-mcpherson-1668.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning I wanted to share three male Yellow Warbler photos that I took yesterday morning in a Morgan County canyon.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Yellow Warbler and willow leaves, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/yellow-warbler-male-adult-mia-mcpherson-0737.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/yellow-warbler-male-adult-mia-mcpherson-0737.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/yellow-warbler-male-adult-mia-mcpherson-0737.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning I found not one but two Yellow Warbler nests high in the Wasatch Mountains because I paid attention to the movements of two female warblers.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Yellow Warbler in nest with nesting materials, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/yellow-warbler-adult-female-in-nest-mia-mcpherson-6973.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/yellow-warbler-adult-female-in-nest-mia-mcpherson-6973.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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