{"id":53398,"date":"2018-08-06T05:40:22","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T11:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=53398"},"modified":"2025-10-10T18:53:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T23:53:01","slug":"orange-crowned-warbler-feeding-on-utah-serviceberry-berries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/08\/06\/orange-crowned-warbler-feeding-on-utah-serviceberry-berries\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange-crowned Warbler Feeding On Utah Serviceberry Berries"},"content":{"rendered":"

The smoke from the wildfires in the West wasn’t as bad yesterday morning and the sky was almost clear so I went up into the Wasatch Mountains to see what birds I could find. It has been a little slow up in the canyon recently but yesterday I found a bonanza of birds to focus on, most of the birds were at one single Utah Serviceberry shrub.<\/p>\n

\"RipeRipe Utah Serviceberry berries – Nikon D500, f13, 1\/500, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The berries on the Utah Serviceberry<\/span><\/a> shrubs have ripened and they are attracting birds and other wildlife to them. Those berries look delicious and yes they are edible! This one branch hung away from the main shrub and because of that it made an excellent subject.<\/p>\n

\"Orange-crownedOrange-crowned Warbler in the Wasatch Mountains – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I caught some movement on the backside of the shrub and tried to focus on the bird I could see moving around but since it was in the shaded part of the serviceberry I had a hard time, once I was able to lock on to the bird in the shadows I decided it was an Orange-crowned Warbler. I hoped that it would move into better light and that is what happened.<\/p>\n

\"Orange-crownedOrange-crowned Warbler perched on a Utah Serviceberry – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I would have preferred more shutter speed than I had and I could have bumped my ISO up to achieve that but I decided I didn’t want to waste even a second to change my settings while I had this lovely warbler in my viewfinder so all of my images were taken at a very low shutter speed.<\/p>\n

\"Orange-crownedOrange-crowned Warbler feeding on a berry – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The Orange-crowned Warbler was feeding on the juicy serviceberry berries by sticking her bill into them, the berries are too large for a bird this small to swallow whole.<\/p>\n

\"PerkyPerky hatch year Orange-crowned Warbler female – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Her bill was covered with sticky juice but that didn’t seem to bother her much. Every photo I took of her shows the juice on her bill.<\/p>\n

I was delighted that the Orange-crowned Warbler stuck around as long as she did, it must have been the draw of those juicy berries! Normally when I see Orange-crowned Warblers they move too quickly to get decent photos of them.<\/p>\n

\"Orange-crownedOrange-crowned Warbler in a mountain canyon – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I was a little confused by the plumage of this warbler so I contacted my friend Mark Stackhouse who is a birder, fellow bird photographer, and bird guide in Mexico<\/span><\/a> for help and he believes this is a hatch year female of the Eastern subspecies and I agree. She was just a bit grayer than I am used to seeing in Orange-crowned Warblers.<\/p>\n

\"ServiceberryServiceberry berries and an Orange-crowned Warbler – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/200, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The Orange-crowned Warbler gave me quite a few different poses and I was happy to take photos of her and the Utah Serviceberry shrub while she moved around. Most of the photos were all taken while she perched on the same branch, at least those where I had sufficient light.<\/p>\n

\"Orange-crownedOrange-crowned Warbler in mid-morning light – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/200, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I only had this Orange-crowned Warbler in my viewfinder for a little over one minute and I took advantage of every second that she was in was in the Utah Serviceberry shrub.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

The Orange-crowned Warbler gave me quite a few different poses and I was happy to take photos of her and the Utah Serviceberry shrub while she moved around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":159795,"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":[27,4594,6695,5346,26],"tags":[6523,6605,4040,4070,1098,5381,6693,6661,6564,4069,6694,4104,3819,6698,2315,6522,3888,3889],"class_list":["post-53398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-morgan-county","category-orange-crowned-warblers","category-shrubs","category-utah","tag-amelanchier-utahensis","tag-berries","tag-feeding","tag-female","tag-first-year","tag-hatch-year","tag-leiothlypis-celata","tag-mid-morning","tag-mountain-canyon","tag-mountains","tag-orange-crowned-warbler","tag-perched","tag-perky","tag-serviceberry","tag-summer-3","tag-utah-serviceberry","tag-warbler","tag-warblers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/orange-crowned-warbler-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-7737.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dTg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":72562,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/08\/09\/yellow-warbler-among-ripe-serviceberries\/","url_meta":{"origin":53398,"position":0},"title":"Yellow Warbler Among Ripe Serviceberries","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Several Yellow Warblers flew into the serviceberry and in this photo I can see that this female has been feeding on the ripe berries because her lower mandible has a juicy residue on it.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Yellow Warbler and ripe serviceberries, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/yellow-warbler-ripe-serviceberries-mia-mcpherson-7365.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-ripe-serviceberries-mia-mcpherson-7365.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\/10\/orange-crowned-warbler-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-8674.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/orange-crowned-warbler-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-8674.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/orange-crowned-warbler-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-8674.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/orange-crowned-warbler-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-8674.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53840,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/08\/28\/morgan-county-orange-crowned-warbler\/","url_meta":{"origin":53398,"position":3},"title":"Morgan County Orange-crowned Warbler","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This Orange-crowned Warbler probably wasn't peeking out of the serviceberry shrub at me, it was more than likely looking at the ripe fruit just in front of its bill.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Orange-crowned Warbler peeking out of a serviceberry, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/orange-crowned-warbler-peeking-mia-mcpherson-9922.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/orange-crowned-warbler-peeking-mia-mcpherson-9922.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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