Black Phoebe juveniles in Canon City area

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Yesterday 2 juvenile Black Phoebes found their way to one of the ponds on my friend's property east of Canon City. I suspect these are the offspring of a pair of Black Phoebes I observed on the west end of my friend's property for several weeks this spring. I couldn't relocate them a few weeks ago and thought the pair might be nesting under a nearby RR bridge where a pair of Black Phoebes had successfully nested last summer (and likely the summer before). Since I haven't seen them in that area recently (and they would be fairly obvious as the parents secured food for the growing youngsters) I think they found another location, though somewhere not far, to nest.

The is a pic of one of those juveniles and it clearly shows the cinnamon/brown edging on the wing (also on back feathers not visible in pic) that most easily distinguishes those in juvenal plumage from adult plumage. Other distinguishing features of juvenal plumage are not visible in this pic which I took, handheld, about 50 feet from the bird. However, the still somewhat yellowish bill flanges are visible and indicate that this is a fairly young juvenile. In my experience with a number of Black Phoebe nestings, birds that still have as much distinguishable gape flanges have only recently moved from being fed by parents as fledglings to their independent juvenile stage. Double-click on the pic to enlarge it for better viewing. SeEtta

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