Birds and Nature

I also found this bird, a very blackish phoebe, at the Holcim Wetlands. It had mostly black feathers on head, back and wings with white throat, yellowish underparts and smudie sides. Holcim Wetlands is in Fremont County, Colo where I have followed a number of nestings of mixed Black and Eastern Phoebes. SeEtta

Yesterday I found this brown fronted probable hybrid BlackXEastern Phoebe up the Arkansas River in a tiny town of Coaldale, CO. This location is about 33 miles west of where I had seen my first brown-fronted hybrid phoebe in late March of this year. This bird was about 80 feet away so I wasn't able to get a very good photo and cannot say if this bird looks like the one I saw in March. Due to the many nestings between presumptive Black and Eastern Phoebes in this area, I believe this is a BlackXEastern hybrid and that the brown-fronted plumage is a result of the hybridization. By the way, I did not do any editing other than cropping this pic so it would give the most accurate representation of the coloration and shading. I would add that this phoebe is not nearly as black as most Black Phoebes I have seen and photographed in this area (or other areas for that matter). The brown coloration on the crown of this bird is best viewed by double-clicking on the pic to enlarge it furthe...

The two juvenile phoebes in the family I have been following seemed to have seen the same feeding feast that the Cedar Waxwings were enjoying and soon flew several hundred feet upstream from where they have been foraging to join in. After awhile this young phoebe perched on the fence only about 25 feet from me. It seemed almost overwhelmed by the number of insects, possibly from a localized caddis hatch, that are flyinItg around and near to it. The phoebes very black head stands out relative to it's body in this clip. It's tail is getting shaggy as it may be losing rectrices in a molt. After feasting for about 30 minutes, the insect hatch appeared to be over--the waxwing flew off upriver and the two young phoebes returned to where they have been foraging for days right near their nest location. SeEtta --don't forget to double-click on the box with the 4 arrows in the bottom right corner of the video clip to enlarge it to full screen viewing.