{"id":72319,"date":"2020-07-30T05:33:52","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T11:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=72319"},"modified":"2025-05-19T14:26:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T19:26:25","slug":"young-mountain-bluebirds-in-my-viewfinder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/07\/30\/young-mountain-bluebirds-in-my-viewfinder\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Mountain Bluebirds In My Viewfinder"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JuvenileJuvenile Mountain Bluebird perched on a clump of sage \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The last time I shared a young Mountain Bluebird photo<\/span><\/a> I lamented the fact that the bluebird families didn’t stay close to the road. I only had one photo to share and that Mountain Bluebird fledgling was on a human-made metal post and I typically prefer to have my subjects on natural perches.<\/p>\n

Yesterday morning I spotted a raggedy-looking male Mountain Bluebird from a distance perched on a sagebrush in the Wasatch Mountains<\/span><\/a> and when I stopped to scope him out I saw that there was a juvenile near it. While observing the Mountain Bluebirds I could see that the male was still finding food to feed his young.<\/p>\n

At that point I could hear other bluebird calls but since I was focused on the two I could see I didn’t know where the other birds were but before long they showed up and I had fun photographing the male and about 4 to 5 of his progeny. Since I was taking photos of the them I didn’t take the time to get an accurate count of the juvenile bluebirds.<\/p>\n

Even though the young bluebird is small in the frame in this photo I liked it because it shows the sage it was perched on and because of the light.<\/p>\n

\"MountainMountain Bluebird juvenile perched on a sagebrush stump \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

It didn’t take long for some of the bluebirds to move closer to the road where I could take the images of them that I’d been hoping for. When this juvenile flew in and landed on a sagebrush stump I was ready.<\/p>\n

This young bluebird stayed on this perch for a minute or two and kept an eye on the adult male who was flitting around in search of food for his young and it also kept an eye on me.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Mountain Bluebird perched on a small twig \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When the juvenile Mountain Bluebird took off it dove to the ground for prey, missed, and then flew up to land on a twig of dead sage out in the open.<\/p>\n

Not long after this photo was taken a vehicle came down the road at the same time as a person with their dog walked by and the bluebird family took off and were soon out of the range of my lens.<\/p>\n

I was happy to have these juvenile Mountain Bluebirds in my viewfinder yesterday and to be able to listen to their soft calls high on the sagebrush dotted hillside.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

I was happy to have these juvenile Mountain Bluebirds in my viewfinder yesterday and to be able to listen to their soft calls high on the sagebrush dotted hillside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":145306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,1369,1731,26,773],"tags":[2519,11480,5933,4880,3940,4067,4071,228,4069,4104,2817,4057,2315,3844,4881,4193],"class_list":["post-72319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-mountain-bluebirds","category-summit-county-utah","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-artemisia-tridentata","tag-big-sagebrush","tag-bluebird","tag-bluebirds","tag-canyon","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-mountain-bluebird","tag-mountains","tag-perched","tag-sage","tag-sagebrush","tag-summer-3","tag-thrush","tag-thrushes","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-perched-on-sage-stump-mia-mcpherson-5189.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-iOr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":53294,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/07\/31\/juvenile-mountain-bluebird-perched-on-sagebrush-small-in-the-frame\/","url_meta":{"origin":72319,"position":0},"title":"Juvenile Mountain Bluebird Perched On Sagebrush – Small In The Frame","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This juvenile Mountain Bluebird was hunting for food its own, perching on sagebrush and then diving to the ground after prey.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Mountain Bluebird perched on sagebrush, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-sage-mia-mcpherson-7003-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-sage-mia-mcpherson-7003-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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McPherson","date":"June 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The young Mountain Bluebird turned and snatched the cricket from the male quickly before any of its siblings could reach the branches.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Mountain Bluebird feeding a cricket to a juvenile, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-male-fledgling-mia-mcpherson-4314.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-male-fledgling-mia-mcpherson-4314.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-male-fledgling-mia-mcpherson-4314.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 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Bluebirds","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Luck was on my side when I found the family of Mountain Bluebirds in good light plus they were close enough to take quality photos of them, first the male then the female and the juveniles.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Mountain Bluebird with adult male watching over it, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-adult-mia-mcpherson-4334.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-adult-mia-mcpherson-4334.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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