{"id":92697,"date":"2021-07-28T05:52:50","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T11:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=92697"},"modified":"2025-05-31T14:16:46","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T19:16:46","slug":"gray-catbird-adult-finding-food-for-its-young","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/07\/28\/gray-catbird-adult-finding-food-for-its-young\/","title":{"rendered":"Gray Catbird Adult Finding Food For Its Young"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GrayGray Catbird with a spider for their young \u2013 Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/400, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Bird activity in the Wasatch Mountains<\/span><\/a> has gotten slow but I was able to find and photograph an adult Gray Catbird with food for its young two days ago. Unfortunately the preferred perch for the catbird was a plant pot that had washed down stream sometime earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The pot is trashy and I wish I could walk out and get it without sinking into the mud up to my knees so it wouldn’t be in my photos or polluting the creek. Perhaps the next time I head up there I will take my winter boots with me so I can fetch the pot because at least those boots would be easy to hose off when I got back home.<\/p>\n

The catbird didn’t care about the pot and it actually landed on it twice while I observed it looking for food for its young. In this photo the adult catbird has a spider in its bill.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult Gray Catbird with a spider and dragonfly nymph \u2013 Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

After feeding one of its chicks the spider the catbird went foraging again and when it landed on the pot I could see a spider plus a dragonfly nymph in its bill.<\/p>\n

I only saw the adult feed one of its chicks once and they were way across the creek and were too small in the frame for high quality images. The other times I knew that the catbird was feeding one of its young they were behind a thick stand of willows. I had hoped that I would see that action closer and out in the open. That didn’t happen.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult Gray Catbird calling softly \u2013 Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The adult Gray Catbird did take a short break from foraging for food and perched out in the open on a thin branch where it called softly for a few seconds. I enjoyed hearing, observing and photographing this catbird as it went about the business of rearing its young of the season.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Bird activity in the Wasatch Mountains has gotten slow but I was able to find and photograph an adult Gray Catbird with food for its young two days ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":147689,"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":[27,3605,1731,26,773],"tags":[4897,4072,3940,6559,6558,3843,12052,12050,3607,9475,3606,821,4069,4104,12051,4106,9626,3901,2315,9474,6107,902],"class_list":["post-92697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-gray-catbirds","category-summit-county-utah","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-branch","tag-calling","tag-canyon","tag-catbird","tag-catbirds","tag-creek","tag-dragonfly-larvae","tag-dragonlyfly-nymph","tag-dumetella-carolinensis","tag-garbage","tag-gray-catbird","tag-mimids-2","tag-mountains","tag-perched","tag-pot","tag-prey","tag-riparian-habitat","tag-spider","tag-summer-3","tag-trash","tag-willow","tag-willows"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/gray-catbird-adult-with-spider-dragonfly-larvae-mia-mcpherson-0953.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-o77","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":103346,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/06\/17\/gray-catbird-on-a-stump-in-a-creek\/","url_meta":{"origin":92697,"position":0},"title":"Gray Catbird On A Stump In A Creek","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"While I was up in the Wasatch Mountains two days ago I photographed an adult Gray Catbird on a stump that is stuck close to a creek bank.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gray Catbird on a stump, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/gray-catbird-on-stump-mia-mcpherson-9268.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/gray-catbird-on-stump-mia-mcpherson-9268.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/gray-catbird-on-stump-mia-mcpherson-9268.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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McPherson","date":"July 17, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I was extremely pleased to find and photograph my first Gray Catbird juvenile of this breeding season yesterday morning high in the Wasatch Mountains as it came into view on a hawthorn tree.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Gray Catbird up close, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/gray-catbird-juvenile-up-close-mia-mcpherson-0023.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/gray-catbird-juvenile-up-close-mia-mcpherson-0023.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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