{"id":79342,"date":"2021-02-15T06:17:40","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T13:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=79342"},"modified":"2024-04-05T05:17:58","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T11:17:58","slug":"snowy-spotted-towhee-portrait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/02\/15\/snowy-spotted-towhee-portrait\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowy Spotted Towhee Portrait"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SnowySnowy Spotted Towhee portrait \u2013 Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 1000, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

There was about 2 1\/2 inches of white stuff on the ground yesterday morning which allowed me to take this snowy Spotted Towhee portrait close to home.<\/p>\n

The light was dreadful which meant that I had to crank my ISO up to have sufficient shutter speed. My Nikon D500 handles higher ISO’s like a champ so I wasn’t worried about creating noise in my images. My main concern was having a fast enough enough shutter speed while photographing these colorful members of the sparrow family.<\/p>\n

There were two male Spotted Towhees in the area and after an extremely brief scuffle this male landed on the snow close enough to me that I opted to take portraits of him. Even though I had low light conditions my camera was able to capture light in the towhee’s red eye. The fine details in the dark feathers of his head were also clearly visible. I appreciated being able to take portraits of this species despite the low light conditions.<\/p>\n

In the past I have struggled to have clear views of Spotted Towhees because they are by nature quite skulky so having both males out in the open was delightful. I would have loved to have heard the male towhees call<\/span><\/a> but they were both silent.<\/p>\n

I may have more opportunities to photograph these Spotted Towhees in snowy conditions if the weather forecasters are correct. Today and the next two days have snow in the forecast. I am crossing my fingers and hoping that we get the snow and that I’ll be able to have more Spotted Towhees in my viewfinder soon.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

There was about 2 1\/2 inches of white stuff on the ground yesterday morning which allowed me to take this snowy Spotted Towhee portrait close to home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127216,"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":[124,27,1148,3542,26],"tags":[4004,4142,4062,3546,4046,4050,4328,855,4195,3545,5908,4854,8018,373],"class_list":["post-79342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-spotted-towhees","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-close-up","tag-male","tag-pipilo-maculatus","tag-portrait","tag-snow","tag-snowy","tag-sparrow","tag-sparrows","tag-spotted-towhee","tag-towhee","tag-towhees","tag-urban","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/spotted-towhee-portrait-in-snow-mia-mcpherson-3502.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-kDI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":104011,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/07\/10\/juvenile-green-tailed-and-spotted-towhee-side-by-side\/","url_meta":{"origin":79342,"position":0},"title":"Juvenile Green-tailed and Spotted Towhee Side By Side","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Until two days ago I had never gotten photos of a juvenile Green-tailed and young Spotted Towhee in the same frame so I was thrilled when I saw them fly in.","rel":"","context":"In "Bird ID"","block_context":{"text":"Bird ID","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/bird-identification\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Green-tailed and Spotted Towhee comparison, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/green-tailed-and-spotted-towhee-young-mia-mcpherson-4203.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/green-tailed-and-spotted-towhee-young-mia-mcpherson-4203.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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McPherson","date":"May 7, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I had a few moments to photograph a singing male Spotted Towhee two days ago in Morgan County high in the Wasatch Mountains.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Spotted Towhee in spring, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/spotted-towhee-male-willow-mia-mcpherson-0671.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/spotted-towhee-male-willow-mia-mcpherson-0671.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/spotted-towhee-male-willow-mia-mcpherson-0671.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I'm sharing a photo of a male Spotted Towhee that I captured yesterday while walking along the Jordan River in Salt Lake County early in the morning.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Spotted Towhee in a hawthorn, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/spotted-towhee-jordan-river-trail-mia-mcpherson-9744.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/spotted-towhee-jordan-river-trail-mia-mcpherson-9744.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/spotted-towhee-jordan-river-trail-mia-mcpherson-9744.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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