Up in the mountains is the American Redstart.  They require an elevation between 5,000 and 8,000 feet.

I never got any fantastic pictures, but you get the idea.  The redstart is a type of warbler, a bit more flashy than you usually see.  He has a white bottom eye ring, which is very obvious in this picture:

I didn’t witness this, but redstarts eat insects and will flush them out by flashing the white patches on their wings.

They nest on the ground, which is hard to imagine considering how much they liked being high up in my experience.  It took a very long time to get these pictures because they’re such nervous and secretive birds.

They’re often overlooked because during certain times of the year they’re everywhere.  During our Arizona trip, we started saying “Oh, I see something!  Wait, it’s just a Yellow-rumped Warbler.”

The Yellow-rumped Warbler is a combination of two species that used to be considered separate species.  The way to tell the difference is that the ones formerly known as Audobon Warblers have yellow under their throats.

They also usually look scruffier.

These are one of the first birds to come back to Utah in the spring.  It already feels like winter is coming after a cold rainy week, so I’m waiting to see warblers again.

He really is black throated!

Oh my goodness, he’s cute.  He has two little yellow spots near his eyes.  Here is a side view.

And here is a dead-on straight view that illustrates why warblers are the cutest species.

I felt like I struck warbler gold when I got to see him catch a moth.  I love watching birds catch insects almost as much as I love seeing them in flight.

He’s completely unremarkable except for a tawny crown.  I was a little confused by the crown for a second, having only seen one on a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  Here’s the warbler’s crown.

Kinglets have very distinctive wing bars, so I knew I didn’t confuse bird species.  Lucy’s Warblers breed in limited areas and only in mesquite, which is causing their numbers to become threatened.  I was fortunate enough to see them in two different areas.  The first area was Patagonia Lake, which is where the above pictures were taken.  The second area was in some trees next to rock formations.

We have orange rocks around SLC, but they’re not as orange as these and they don’t have lichen growing on top.

In the picture below they call the formation on the right “The Preacher” because it looks like a man holding a bible that is preaching to his congregation.

The trails were a bit wet, especially towards the end of the trail.

But what I want to show you today is quite fantastic.  First we’ll start with a great shot of a male Yellow Warbler.

The males were singing their heads off.  They were everywhere, singing in the trees and chasing after each other.  One of the males was feeding a baby cowbird.

Do you see how ridiculously huge the cowbird is compared to the warbler?  Cowbirds are brood parasites that lay their eggs in the nests for other birds to raise.

The cowbirds will remove a native egg so the parents don’t reject the intruder egg.  The cowbirds have even evolved to create eggs with a pattern that matches the eggs from the biological parent.  The parents are tricked and will feed the baby cowbirds even though the cowbirds can be twice as large as the parents.

photo by Jon

There are reports that if the other birds in the nest are much smaller than the cowbird, the little birds will starve to death.  There are additional reports that some brood parasites are born with mandible hooks that they use to kill the other babies in the nest.

It’s a sad situation since we love warblers and don’t want to them to be harmed for the betterment of cowbirds.  The warbler has to work really hard to feed this gigantic bird.

It’s hard to not resent the cowbird, at least a little bit.  One way that warblers fight against this situation is if a cowbird lays an egg in their nest, they’ll build a nest on top of the original one.

But I will say that I don’t see a lot of cowbirds around and I’ve seen a TON of Yellow Warblers.  I’ve even seen Yellow Warblers in my yard, which is in a moderately urban part of Salt Lake City.

So I think they’ll be okay in the end.

Their eyes look huge because of the white eye ring.

I didn’t get any great pictures of his ruby crown.  It takes two males defending their territory to see that.  You can see a hint of it in this picture from the back.

Since I’ve been back in Utah I’ve been visiting the Red Butte Gardens.  A few weeks ago I didn’t think I was going to see anything because it was so cold and snowy.  I mean, just look at these sad sad plants from April 10.

But then I saw a Ruby-crowned Kinglet!

This was my first sighting of one in Salt Lake City.  And then I saw two!  They were having a fight over territory.  The ruby crowns were out.

They flew against each other and there was a whirlwind of feathers.  I’m not sure who won but it was very fun to watch.

If you want to see fantastic pictures of the red patch, go here (there is also a really interesting section on bilateral gyandromorphs, i.e. birds displaying both male and female feather coloring).  Turning now to the Golden-crowned Kinglet, I see similarities between the two types of kinglets but it’s hard to distinguish when the Ruby-crowned Kinglet looks so drab in comparison.

These pictures were taken in South Carolina, where birds prefer to live in the winter.  I’m a sucker for birds with little hats.

These birds are the size of hummingbirds.  So tiny!

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Jon’s family for patiently taking me through a golf course to find this bird.  They’re wonderful people to be so patient to the crazy lady who wants to look at birds the day before Thanksgiving.

This is a Yellow Warbler.  The males have red lines on their breast.  The next level of photography is to take a picture where the bird is doing something interesting.  Here, he’s bathing and he looks so happy!

(photo by Jon)

The next level is to get something crazy rare and I got it.  This warbler caught an insect.

What’re you looking at?  Get your own food.

You can even see the antennae on the bug.  I’m very proud.

One of the birds flying around is called the Yellow Warbler.

As you may recall, there are a lot of warblers in the world.  Here is an old picture that I have of a Wilson’s Warbler in California.  I was waiting to post a better shot, but who knows if I’ll see one in Utah.

Back to the Yellow Warbler.  The males have reddish streaking on their front, which you can almost see here.

They make little tittering noises, but you’re most likely to find one because of the bright feathers.

It’s a very busy birding season right now because the birds are all working so hard making nests and eating in preparation for raising babies.  I’ll be on the lookout for more warblers.

These guys are very shy. I saw them several times before I could ever capture a picture. The picture above was the only picture that I captured for six months. Last week, one stayed still long enough for me to capture more than one picture!

The males have a black throat.

They like to hang out in conifers and use moss to line their nests.

I like their quick and careful movements.