{"id":53004,"date":"2018-07-08T05:19:25","date_gmt":"2018-07-08T11:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=53004"},"modified":"2025-05-19T12:11:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T17:11:19","slug":"juvenile-mountain-bluebird-learning-to-hunt-on-its-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/07\/08\/juvenile-mountain-bluebird-learning-to-hunt-on-its-own\/","title":{"rendered":"Juvenile Mountain Bluebird Learning To Hunt On Its Own"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JuvenileJuvenile Mountain Bluebird dropping an ant – Nikon D500, f11, 1\/640, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Last month I had a few opportunities to photograph juvenile Mountain Bluebirds in a Wasatch Mountain canyon while they were being fed by adults and as they learned to hunt on their own. Watching them being fed was great because they become so animated with their wings flapping, beaks opening and closing and of course listening to their begging calls was interesting too but watching them learn to hunt on their own while the adults were off foraging for food was both entertaining and educational for me.<\/p>\n

The young bluebirds foraged on and near the road quite often which allowed me to photograph them without obstructions, none of these are great photos but I do like the behavior shown in the first two.<\/p>\n

One of the juvenile Mountain Bluebirds picked something up off of the road and then quickly opened its beak, this happened so fast I couldn’t tell what was going on in this frame until later on when I zoomed in on my camera LCD screen and could make out an ant in mid air falling to the ground. I don’t know if this was the first time this juvenile bluebird had ever tried to eat an ant and spit it back out after tasting it or what was going on.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Mountain Bluebird and an ant on the road – Nikon D500, f11, 1\/640, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Then the juvenile Mountain Bluebird seemed to be looking very carefully at the road and I couldn’t see what was going on or why the bluebird was so focused on one spot on the road until I was able to blow this image up at home on my computer. You might not be able to see what had the attention of the young bluebird in this photo…<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Mountain Bluebird and an ant on the road zoomed in – Nikon D500, f11, 1\/640, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

So I blew the image up slightly, zoomed in by cropping in post processing then put a red circle around what the young Mountain Bluebird was looking at and what it was so focused on. See the ant?<\/p>\n

This is file #7489…<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Mountain Bluebird on a mountain canyon road – Nikon D500, f11, 1\/640, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

And this is file #7490. Somewhere between the last image and this one the juvenile Mountain Bluebird picked up and ate that ant! I guess it decided it liked the taste of the ant after all.<\/p>\n

Birds are so freaking interesting!<\/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":"

Last month I had a few opportunities to photograph juvenile Mountain Bluebirds in a Wasatch Mountain canyon while they were being fed by adults and as they learned to hunt on their own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":145199,"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":[4515,5933,4880,3940,4071,228,4069,2326,4339],"class_list":["post-53004","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-ant","tag-bluebird","tag-bluebirds","tag-canyon","tag-juvenile","tag-mountain-bluebird","tag-mountains","tag-road","tag-sialia-currucoides"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-ant-mia-mcpherson-7489.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dMU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":52687,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/06\/20\/focusing-on-photographing-juvenile-mountain-bluebirds\/","url_meta":{"origin":53004,"position":0},"title":"Focusing On Photographing Juvenile Mountain Bluebirds","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"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.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Mountain Bluebird with adult male watching over it, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-adult-mia-mcpherson-4334.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-adult-mia-mcpherson-4334.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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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":53294,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/07\/31\/juvenile-mountain-bluebird-perched-on-sagebrush-small-in-the-frame\/","url_meta":{"origin":53004,"position":2},"title":"Juvenile Mountain Bluebird Perched On Sagebrush – Small In The Frame","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This juvenile Mountain Bluebird was hunting for food its own, perching on sagebrush and then diving to the ground after prey.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Mountain Bluebird perched on sagebrush, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-sage-mia-mcpherson-7003-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-sage-mia-mcpherson-7003-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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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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