{"id":53587,"date":"2018-08-14T04:54:32","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T10:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=53587"},"modified":"2025-02-16T08:40:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T14:40:20","slug":"focusing-on-juvenile-gray-catbirds-learning-to-be-on-their-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/08\/14\/focusing-on-juvenile-gray-catbirds-learning-to-be-on-their-own\/","title":{"rendered":"Focusing On Juvenile Gray Catbirds Learning To Be On Their Own"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a lot of fun photographing adult Gray Catbirds earlier this year and photographing the juveniles learning to be on their own has been equally fun and entertaining.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Gray Catbird peeking out of a thicket – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I have been seeing lots of juvenile Gray Catbirds lately and I am quite happy about that because it means they had a successful breeding season at least in the canyon where I have been photographing them since early spring. The juvenile Gray Catbirds I have been watching haven’t had adults feeding them and I haven’t seen them begging to be fed so I believe they are learning to be on their own and hunting for food by themselves.<\/p>\n

\"MessyMessy juvenile Gray Catbird – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 640, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the juvenile catbirds look a bit messy because they are molting into their “First Basic” or “Basic I” plumage, they still don’t have the chestnut under-tail coverts that the adult have. Messy or not they are still handsome birds in my opinion.<\/p>\n

\"AlertAlert Gray Catbird juvenile – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The pale gapes of these juvenile Gray Catbirds are still visible, they won’t be pale when these juveniles reach adulthood.<\/p>\n

It has been great to watch these young Gray Catbirds learn how to be on their own and I have enjoyed my time with them, it won’t be long before they migrate and I hope to spend more time with them before they go.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

Gape: In bird anatomy, the gape is the interior of the open mouth of a bird, and the gape flange is the region where the two mandibles join together at the base of the beak.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

It was a lot of fun photographing adult Gray Catbirds earlier this year and photographing the juveniles learning to be on their own has been equally fun and entertaining. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140133,"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":[27,3605,4594,26,773],"tags":[4540,740,3940,6559,6558,3607,11519,3606,4067,4071,6022,2312,4069,6725,902,4193],"class_list":["post-53587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-gray-catbirds","category-morgan-county","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-alert","tag-begging","tag-canyon","tag-catbird","tag-catbirds","tag-dumetella-carolinensis","tag-gapes","tag-gray-catbird","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-messy","tag-molt","tag-mountains","tag-thicket","tag-willows","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/gray-catbird-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-2740.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dWj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":104614,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/07\/30\/fledgling-gray-catbird-portraits\/","url_meta":{"origin":53587,"position":0},"title":"Fledgling Gray Catbird Portraits","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning while photographing a male Yellow Warbler I caught some movement with my peripheral vison and saw a young Gray Catbird very close to me.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fledgling Gray Catbird portrait, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/gray-catbird-juvenile-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8991.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/gray-catbird-juvenile-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8991.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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