{"id":53889,"date":"2018-08-30T05:05:45","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T11:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=53889"},"modified":"2026-02-02T05:57:46","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T11:57:46","slug":"immature-american-robins-foraging-in-chokecherry-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/08\/30\/immature-american-robins-foraging-in-chokecherry-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"Immature American Robins Foraging in Chokecherry Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning I could have been found checking out Smith and Morehouse Reservoir<\/span><\/a> in Summit County, Utah.<\/p>\n

I’d never been there before and I was excited to see what birds might be in the area. It appeared that most of the migrants have already left but there were some year round residents in the area.<\/p>\n

I saw a low of 33\u00b0F and frost on the ground for the first time this season which is not all that surprising considering the elevation (+\/- 7800 feet) and I was still wearing my hiking sandals, it seems it is time to at least put some warm socks in my camera bag.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature American Robin with a Chokecherry – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 640, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

There was plenty of bird activity where chokecherry trees (Prunus virginiana<\/em>) lined both sides of the gravel road, the most numerous birds foraging on the chokecherries were American Robins and many of them were immature birds. These immature American Robins are most likely from the second or third broods of the breeding season.<\/p>\n

This young American Robin had a fat chokecherry in its bill when I first saw it so I quickly focused on it and fired away as it struggled to swallow the ripe fruit whole.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature American Robin swallowing a Chokecherry – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 640, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I took 81 photos of this immature American Robin before it finally swallowed the chokecherry. Believe it or not I was cheering this young bird along inside my head because I thought the chokecherry might have been too big to swallow whole, I was happy to see that it could.<\/p>\n

Note: American Robins do not have a crop but their expandable esophagus can act like a crop, in colder weather robins will stuff their esophagus full of fruits so that they will have enough calories to get through bitter cold winter nights.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature American Robin in a Chokecherry tree – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 640, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This immature American Robin appeared to be a bit younger than the robin above, its head and most of its plumage was also lighter and its gape was more pronounced. I liked how the robin was lit by the morning sun while much of the chokecherry was still in the shade, it illuminated this immature robin rather nicely.<\/p>\n

American Robins can be found throughout most of North America so they are considered “common” birds but for me any wild bird is worthy of taking the time to photograph. Photographing these immature American Robins foraging in the chokecherry trees yesterday was the brightest highlight of my morning.<\/p>\n

I also saw Ospreys on a nest on the way up to the reservoir, a thrush I have yet to identify, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Steller’s Jays, chickadees, Clark’s Nutcrackers, Red-tailed Hawks, mule deer, a squirrel I couldn’t identify because my view of it was so brief plus I heard some sapsuckers calling. A trip up to this reservoir in the spring and early summer has been placed on my “to do” list for next year.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

There was plenty of bird activity where chokecherry trees lined both sides of the gravel road, the most numerous birds foraging on the chokecherries were American Robins and many of them were immature birds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":147180,"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":[456,27,6753,1731,26],"tags":[2427,6755,6754,6531,5370,6667,4067,4071,6532,6642,5199,2315,5549,3844,4881,1048,4193],"class_list":["post-53889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-robins","category-avian","category-smith-and-morehouse-reservoir","category-summit-county-utah","category-utah","tag-american-robin","tag-broods","tag-chokecherries","tag-chokecherry","tag-forest","tag-fruit","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-prunus-virginiana","tag-robin","tag-robins","tag-summer-3","tag-swallowing","tag-thrush","tag-thrushes","tag-turdus-migratorius","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-immature-chokecherry-mia-mcpherson-1920.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-e1b","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":58417,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/06\/08\/flowering-chokecherry-trees-aka-blooming-bird-food\/","url_meta":{"origin":53889,"position":0},"title":"Flowering Chokecherry Trees – AKA Blooming Bird Food","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Because of our wetter than normal spring it seems that the chokecherries are doing well, extremely well. Many of the chokecherry branches are bending low because of the weight of the blossoms.\u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "American Robins"","block_context":{"text":"American Robins","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/thrushes\/american-robins\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature American Robin swallowing a ripe chokecherry, Smith and Morehouse Reservoir, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-immature-chokecherry-mia-mcpherson-1759.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-immature-chokecherry-mia-mcpherson-1759.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-immature-chokecherry-mia-mcpherson-1759.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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berry, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-immature-berries-mia-mcpherson-8960.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-immature-berries-mia-mcpherson-8960.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-immature-berries-mia-mcpherson-8960.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-immature-berries-mia-mcpherson-8960.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":71841,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/07\/12\/american-robin-fledglings-exploring-their-mountain-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":53889,"position":2},"title":"American Robin Fledglings Exploring Their Mountain Home","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Three days ago I saw lots of young birds in the Wasatch Mountains east of where I live in Salt Lake City and among them were several American Robin fledglings.","rel":"","context":"In "American Robins"","block_context":{"text":"American Robins","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/thrushes\/american-robins\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fledgling American Robin looking up at the sky, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-fledgling-creek-bank-mia-mcpherson-8624.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-fledgling-creek-bank-mia-mcpherson-8624.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Robins","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/thrushes\/american-robins\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile American Robin in July, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-juvenile-mountains-mia-mcpherson-9915.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-juvenile-mountains-mia-mcpherson-9915.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-juvenile-mountains-mia-mcpherson-9915.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-juvenile-mountains-mia-mcpherson-9915.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I only had two birds in my viewfinder yesterday morning on my journey up to the Wasatch Mountains. My best images were of this American Robin on a gate post.","rel":"","context":"In "American Robins"","block_context":{"text":"American Robins","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/thrushes\/american-robins\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult American Robin on a gate post, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/american-robin-on-a-gate-mia-mcpherson-0255.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/american-robin-on-a-gate-mia-mcpherson-0255.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/american-robin-on-a-gate-mia-mcpherson-0255.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/american-robin-on-a-gate-mia-mcpherson-0255.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}