{"id":57863,"date":"2019-05-15T05:41:04","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T11:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=57863"},"modified":"2026-02-02T05:48:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T11:48:06","slug":"chipping-sparrows-wild-turkeys-and-broad-tailed-hummingbirds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/05\/15\/chipping-sparrows-wild-turkeys-and-broad-tailed-hummingbirds\/","title":{"rendered":"Chipping Sparrows, Wild Turkeys and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ChippingChipping Sparrow perched in front of snow-capped mountains – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The weather forecast for at least the next week looks pretty dismal for bird photography and knowing that I felt like I had to get out and take advantage of the sunshine yesterday morning to look for birds and I found some that were cooperative.<\/p>\n

The first bird I photographed yesterday was a sharp-looking Chipping Sparrow in breeding plumage perched on top of a juniper with snow-capped mountains in the background. Although the sparrow is small in the frame I really like the simplicity of this photo and the lovely light I had when I took this image.<\/p>\n

\"WildWild Turkey hen peeking over tall grasses – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

A few minutes later I spotted a Wild Turkey hen making her way through a small meadow where she was mostly hidden by tall grasses. I took more photos of her where she wasn’t hidden but for some reason I liked this image the most and I find it very appealing.<\/p>\n

\"ChippingChipping Sparrow on a Juniper – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I was happy to have frame filling views of another Chipping Sparrow perched on a juniper where the grassy hillside and distant junipers gave me a lush green background in all of the photos I took of the bird. The sparrow even sang for a bit while I photographed it.<\/p>\n

Being able to photograph these two bird species delighted and excited me and I would have been glad to go home with just the images I took of them but there was more birdy excitement to come yesterday morning.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Broad-tailed Hummingbird perched on a Wax Currant bush – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The gems of my photographic journey yesterday morning were Broad-tailed Hummingbirds that were hanging around a Wax Currant bush next to the dirt road where the sounds of their wings alerted me to their presence. Seeing and photographing them was a joy I hadn’t expected.<\/p>\n

\"HoveringHovering male Broad-tailed Hummingbird – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I was able to photograph them hovering over and near the currant bush…<\/p>\n

\"OverOver the shoulder look from a male Broad-tailed Hummingbird – Nikon D500, f9, 1\/800, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

And while they perched on it and other nearby shrubs. I had great views of these flying jewels from far away and close up.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Broad-tailed Hummingbird getting nectar from a Wax Currant bloom – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

At times the Broad-tailed Hummingbirds were so close that I couldn’t fit their whole bodies in my viewfinder so I clipped the tips of their beaks or the bottom edges of their tails while trying to get images of them.<\/p>\n

I got lucky when I took this image of the male Broad-tailed Hummingbird nectaring from the tubular blossoms of the currant. From top to bottom this image is full frame with some cropping of the sides for composition and really I had no room to spare vertically.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Broad-tailed Hummingbird up close – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The hummingbirds rested often by perching on a the bare branches of the currant bush and other nearby shrubs, sometimes there were there for minutes and other times just a few seconds and when they were close I could see the finest details in their feathers through my viewfinder.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Broad-tailed Hummingbirds in an altercation – Nikon D500, f9, 1\/640, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

There were several times I took images of two of the Broad-tailed Hummingbirds interacting with each other. This altercation happened so close to me that I couldn’t fit both of the birds into the frame so I focused on the hovering hummingbird since it was looking in my direction.<\/p>\n

I took a lot of hummingbird photos yesterday morning, some might even say too many, but I know from experience when I am in the field that I may never have the same opportunity again so I would rather take tons of images than to have regrets later that I didn’t take enough. Besides, the currants only have a short period of time when they are in bloom and by the time I get back to where this bush is the flowers and the hummingbirds may be gone.<\/p>\n

I’ll share more images of the Broad-tailed Hummingbirds I photographed yesterday at a later time but for now these are enough.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my bird photos in their galleries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The gems of my photographic journey yesterday morning were Broad-tailed Hummingbirds that were hanging around a Wax Currant bush next to the dirt road where the sounds of their wings alerted me to their presence. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":148516,"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":[27,2340,3541,358,26,1314,3793],"tags":[2651,3543,7159,3747,4109,4359,6043,2652,3914,4062,3795,4069,7161,2341,855,4195,3544,3796,5501,401,7160,3794],"class_list":["post-57863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-broad-tailed-hummingbirds","category-chipping-sparrows","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","category-wild-turkeys","tag-broad-tailed-hummingbird","tag-chipping-sparrow","tag-currants","tag-grass","tag-grasses","tag-hen","tag-hummingbird","tag-hummingbirds-2","tag-juniper","tag-male","tag-meleagris-gallopavo","tag-mountains","tag-ribes-cereum","tag-selasphorus-platycercus","tag-sparrow","tag-sparrows","tag-spizella-passerina","tag-turkey","tag-turkeys","tag-upland-game-birds","tag-wax-currant","tag-wild-turkey"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/broad-tailed-hummingbird-mountains-male-mia-mcpherson-7021.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-f3h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":57921,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/05\/18\/west-desert-wild-turkey-hen-at-the-edge-of-a-meadow\/","url_meta":{"origin":57863,"position":0},"title":"West 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22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday was a delight in the West Desert because there were plentiful birds to photograph including this male Spotted Towhee singing on its territory.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Spotted Towhee male singing on its territory in the West Desert of Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/spotted-towhee-mia-mcpherson-0007.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/spotted-towhee-mia-mcpherson-0007.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/spotted-towhee-mia-mcpherson-0007.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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