{"id":54187,"date":"2018-09-18T04:34:24","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T10:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=54187"},"modified":"2025-10-24T06:56:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T11:56:51","slug":"yellow-warbler-with-an-injured-eye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/09\/18\/yellow-warbler-with-an-injured-eye\/","title":{"rendered":"Yellow Warbler With An Injured Eye"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout the time I have devoted photographing birds I’ve seen a lot of injured birds, some of them missing feet, some tangled up in fishing line, some with fishing hooks in their bills, and some with cracked or damaged bills, this list goes on.<\/p>\n

I’ve helped to rescue some of those injured birds too when they could be helped, but there are some that I couldn’t help because they could still fly.<\/p>\n

Those I can’t help tug on my heart strings because I’ve seen them, know they are injured, and yet there is nothing I could do.<\/p>\n

\"YellowYellow Warbler – Normal Eye<\/span><\/p>\n

Two days ago a Yellow Warbler foraging in a River Hawthorn caught my attention because it has been about two weeks since I have seen any other Yellow Warblers in that area because they have migrated south.<\/p>\n

So when I spotted this one I admit I wondered why it was still hanging around in a Wasatch Mountain canyon. Then it turned its head…<\/p>\n

\"YellowYellow Warbler – Damaged Eye<\/span><\/p>\n

And I could see that its left eye was either missing or severely damaged. The warbler was actively foraging and it could fly and I knew immediately there would be nothing I could do to help this Yellow Warbler who appeared to be blind in that eye.<\/p>\n

\"YellowYellow Warbler with eye damage on a hawthorn<\/span><\/p>\n

I wondered then if the reason it hadn’t migrated along with all the other Yellow Warblers in the canyon was because of its blind eye and the difficulties of flying thousands of miles in the dark of night. With only one good eye flying at night might be impossible for this small bird.<\/p>\n

\"HalfHalf blind Yellow Warbler<\/span><\/p>\n

I admit that it bothered me deeply that there was nothing that I could do for this Yellow Warbler<\/span><\/a> as it has for the other injured birds I have seen throughout the years that I couldn’t help.<\/p>\n

Then I remembered for not the first or even the tenth time that this is part of the natural cycle of life for birds and that as hard as it may be for me to deal with I simply have to accept it.<\/p>\n

Some of the things we see are hard, some even feel like a punch to the heart but life is still good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Yellow Warbler photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n

No techs this morning, they aren’t that important as these images were only taken to document the injury this bird has sustained.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I admit that it bothered me deeply that there was nothing that I could do for this Yellow Warbler as it has for the other injured birds I have seen throughout the years that I couldn’t help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":161451,"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":[27,4594,2281,26,773],"tags":[4004,970,6810,4620,6566,3815,6809,2282,3888,3889,6492,3887],"class_list":["post-54187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-morgan-county","category-yellow-warblers","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-adult","tag-autumn","tag-blind","tag-fall","tag-hawthorn","tag-injured","tag-injured-eye","tag-setophaga-aestiva","tag-warbler","tag-warblers","tag-wood-warblers","tag-yellow-warbler"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/yellow-warbler-damaged-eye-mia-mcpherson-8937.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-e5Z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":59669,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/08\/22\/yellow-warbler-in-willows\/","url_meta":{"origin":54187,"position":0},"title":"Yellow Warbler In Willows","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 22, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"When this hatch year Yellow Warbler popped out into an open area of a willow thicket in a beam of sunlight I was happy to take its photo.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Yellow Warbler in a thicket of willows, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/yellow-warbler-willow-thicket-mia-mcpherson-3515.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-willow-thicket-mia-mcpherson-3515.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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"Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Foraging male Yellow Warbler, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/yellow-warbler-foraging-mia-mcpherson-0939.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-foraging-mia-mcpherson-0939.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/yellow-warbler-foraging-mia-mcpherson-0939.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/yellow-warbler-foraging-mia-mcpherson-0939.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-warbler-river-hawthorn-mia-mcpherson-7627.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-warbler-river-hawthorn-mia-mcpherson-7627.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-warbler-river-hawthorn-mia-mcpherson-7627.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-warbler-river-hawthorn-mia-mcpherson-7627.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53053,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/07\/12\/not-so-mellow-yellow-warbler-males\/","url_meta":{"origin":54187,"position":3},"title":"Not So Mellow Yellow Warbler Males","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Yellow Warblers are anything but mellow instead they are frenetic, hyperactive, frenzied, energetic and move so quickly they sometimes make me dizzy trying to track them with my long lens.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Yellow Warbler in a hawthorn tree, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/yellow-warbler-male-hawthorn-mia-mcpherson-3063.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-male-hawthorn-mia-mcpherson-3063.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/yellow-warbler-male-hawthorn-mia-mcpherson-3063.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 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Hawthorn Tree","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 14, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Eight days ago I photographed my first male Yellow Warbler of the year and two days ago I had some luck with my first females of the season.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Yellow Warbler female looking up into a River Hawthorn tree, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/yellow-warbler-female-foraging-hawthorn-mia-mcpherson-1383.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/yellow-warbler-female-foraging-hawthorn-mia-mcpherson-1383.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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