{"id":53294,"date":"2018-07-31T05:44:06","date_gmt":"2018-07-31T11:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=53294"},"modified":"2025-05-19T14:08:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T19:08:04","slug":"juvenile-mountain-bluebird-perched-on-sagebrush-small-in-the-frame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/07\/31\/juvenile-mountain-bluebird-perched-on-sagebrush-small-in-the-frame\/","title":{"rendered":"Juvenile Mountain Bluebird Perched On Sagebrush – Small In The Frame"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past month I haven’t been seeing the Mountain Bluebirds up in the canyon that I have been photographing infrequently this summer but yesterday I saw one juvenile and took a few long distance images of it.<\/p>\n

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

The last time I did see Mountain Bluebirds in the canyon the adults were still feeding the young bluebirds and watching after them as their chicks learned to find prey by themselves. This juvenile Mountain Bluebird was hunting for food its own, perching on sagebrush and then diving to the ground after prey.<\/p>\n

I did take a few shots where the young bluebird was closer to me but the bird was in the shade of the mountains to the east and most of the time in those photos there was grass in front of the bird, my best photos of it showed the bluebird small in the frame.<\/p>\n

\"SagebrushSagebrush and a young Mountain Bluebird – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

It is dry up in the mountain canyon and it appears to be much drier than it was last year at this time of the summer. I can see that by the condition this sagebrush is in, what should be a soft silvery gray-green is mostly brown now. Normally I wouldn’t have processed this image because the juvenile Mountain Bluebird kind of gets lost in the foliage but I was struck by how brown and crispy looking the sagebrush is.<\/p>\n

I wish I could have gotten more images of this juvenile Mountain Bluebird where it was closer and in the sunlight but some people walking their dogs went past and this young bird took off.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

This juvenile Mountain Bluebird was hunting for food its own, perching on sagebrush and then diving to the ground after prey. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":145288,"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":[5933,4880,4067,4071,228,6564,4104,2817,4057,4339],"class_list":["post-53294","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-bluebird","tag-bluebirds","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-mountain-bluebird","tag-mountain-canyon","tag-perched","tag-sage","tag-sagebrush","tag-sialia-currucoides"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-sage-mia-mcpherson-7003-1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dRA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":72319,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/07\/30\/young-mountain-bluebirds-in-my-viewfinder\/","url_meta":{"origin":53294,"position":0},"title":"Young Mountain Bluebirds In My Viewfinder","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I was happy to have these juvenile Mountain Bluebirds in my viewfinder yesterday and to be able to listen to their soft calls high on the sagebrush dotted hillside.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mountain 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, 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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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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, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountian-bluebird-juvenile-perched-mia-mcpherson-5679-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountian-bluebird-juvenile-perched-mia-mcpherson-5679-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month and this month I wrote about Mountain Bluebirds in several posts that included images of adult males and females, today I am posting one image of the many fledglings I saw last week.","rel":"","context":"In "Beaverhead County"","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mountain Bluebird juvenile in Montana, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Centennial Valley, Beaverhead County","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-6110.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-6110.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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