Tuesday, December 06, 2016

Wild Bird Wednesday: Common Yellowthroat

Since I first started birding in 2015, one of the birds that has really frustrated me is the Common Yellowthroat.  As its name suggests...it's common.  In fact, it's "witchety-witchety-witch" call is one of the few bird calls that I can easily recognize and learned right away.  However, since it has a tendency to stay hidden deep within the reed beds or only pop out for a half-second (just long enough to get the camera trained in and focused, but not long enough to actually get the shot!), it has been difficult for me to get any decent photographs.

Finally, I found a cooperative male who left the reed beds and took up position in this tree to sing.


 
 
They are striking-looking little birds with their black bandit masks.
 

 
 
This male is singing his "witchety" song.


 
 
And now he's cranking up the volume.
 

 
 
Gotta hit that high note!

 
 
 
Not sure why this bird was willing to hang out and let me get so many nice shots of him, but as long as he was willing to cooperate, I was willing to go with it!
 

 
 
After singing, he got hungry and started hunting for bugs on this branch.
 

 
Hope you enjoyed meeting the Common Yellowthroat.

KJ





3 comments:

mick said...

Beautiful bird and I am glad you got the photos you wanted.

Breathtaking said...

Hello!:) Such beautiful little birds, and lovely photos. I wish we had these birds on my patch.

Stewart M said...

What a great looking bird - and even without sound you can tell he is really belting out his song!

Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne