{"id":74315,"date":"2020-10-04T05:20:29","date_gmt":"2020-10-04T11:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=74315"},"modified":"2024-02-26T05:19:32","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T12:19:32","slug":"young-white-crowned-sparrow-portrait-peeking-out-of-junipers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/10\/04\/young-white-crowned-sparrow-portrait-peeking-out-of-junipers\/","title":{"rendered":"Young White-crowned Sparrow Portrait – Peeking Out Of Junipers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"YoungYoung White-crowned Sparrow portrait \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 640, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week on the same day that I photographed an immature Osprey in the West Desert<\/span><\/a> I also photographed a few White-crowned Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos up high in the mountains.<\/p>\n

I was sitting quietly in my Jeep listening to the nearby birds singing and calling when a small group of sparrows were flushed by something I couldn’t see and they all flew into a juniper that was close to where I was parked. I hoped that at least one of the sparrows would perch on the rabbitbrush that was next to the juniper when they reappeared from the safety of the cover of the junipers.<\/p>\n

One by one the White-crowned Sparrows peeked out of the juniper to make sure the area was safe. One of the adults stepped out onto the ground below the rabbitbrush but my side view mirror made it impossible for me to photograph it without moving my Jeep. I knew that starting my engine would flush the birds again so I waited and hoped that one of the sparrows would fly to the top of the bright yellow rabbitbrush.<\/p>\n

An adult sparrow flew to the top of the juniper and looked around before it flew down to the ground to join the other adult that was foraging on the ground. That adult was so close that I took a few portraits of it but I noticed that I had strong shadows on the body of the bird from the juniper boughs through my viewfinder.<\/p>\n

Close to ground level a young White-crowned Sparrow hopped to the top of a low juniper branch that was in front of the blooming rabbitbrush. I focused on it and took a short burst of photos before it flew to the ground and foraged with the adults.<\/p>\n

I didn’t get the photos I wanted of the sparrows perched on the rabbitbrush but I like this portrait of the young White-crowned Sparrow in front of it just as well.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to view more of my White-crowned Sparrow photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I didn’t get the photos I wanted of the sparrows perched on the rabbitbrush but I like this portrait of the young White-crowned Sparrow in front of it just as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121908,"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":[27,1316,358,26,1314,356],"tags":[3940,4142,4098,4067,4069,4046,4289,10452,855,4195,4327,4193,4256],"class_list":["post-74315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-stansbury-mountains-utah","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","category-white-crowned-sparrows","tag-canyon","tag-close-up","tag-desert","tag-immature","tag-mountains","tag-portrait","tag-rabbitbrush","tag-sky-island-mountains","tag-sparrow","tag-sparrows","tag-white-crowned-sparrow","tag-young","tag-zonotrichia-leucophrys"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/white-crowned-sparrow-immature-portrait-mia-mcpherson-2403.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-jkD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49052,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/10\/20\/adult-and-juvenile-white-crowned-sparrow-portraits\/","url_meta":{"origin":74315,"position":0},"title":"Adult and Juvenile White-crowned Sparrow Portraits","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning while looking for birds to photograph on Antelope Island State Park I had two White-crowned Sparrows fly into a rabbitbrush that was so close to me that all I could do was take portraits of them.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sunny White-crowned Sparrow portrait, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9985.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9985.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9985.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9985.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38227,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/04\/13\/molting-immature-white-crowned-sparrows\/","url_meta":{"origin":74315,"position":1},"title":"Molting Immature White-crowned Sparrows","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"April in northern Utah is a good time to see and photograph molting immature White-crowned Sparrows.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Molting immature White-crowned Sparrow side view, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-molt-side-view-mia-mcpherson-4488.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-molt-side-view-mia-mcpherson-4488.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":"Pair of immature White-crowned Sparrows on a dead branch, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/white-crowned-sparrows-immature-dead-branch-mia-mcpherson-2782.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/white-crowned-sparrows-immature-dead-branch-mia-mcpherson-2782.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/white-crowned-sparrows-immature-dead-branch-mia-mcpherson-2782.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/white-crowned-sparrows-immature-dead-branch-mia-mcpherson-2782.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-juvenile-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3591.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-juvenile-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3591.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-juvenile-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3591.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-juvenile-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3591.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":96549,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/10\/20\/immature-white-crowned-sparrow-photos-in-fall\/","url_meta":{"origin":74315,"position":4},"title":"Immature White-crowned Sparrow Photos In Fall","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 20, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was way up north in Box Elder County three days ago I had the opportunity to take immature White-crowned Sparrow photos with fall colors in the frames.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature White-crowned Sparrow on a sumac at a desert seep, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-immature-fall-sumac-mia-mcpherson-0590.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-immature-fall-sumac-mia-mcpherson-0590.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-immature-fall-sumac-mia-mcpherson-0590.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-immature-fall-sumac-mia-mcpherson-0590.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":59969,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/09\/04\/adult-white-crowned-sparrow-in-rabbitbrush-small-in-the-frame\/","url_meta":{"origin":74315,"position":5},"title":"Adult White-crowned Sparrow In Rabbitbrush – Small in The Frame","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes the colors of in a photo I have taken are what pleases me and draws me in even if my subject is small in the frame, in this case my subject was an adult White-crowned Sparrow.","rel":"","context":"In 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