I’ve been trying to get a decent photo of a Black-throated Blue Warbler for years. It seems like every time I find one perched in a tree, the bird is always partially hidden by leaves. While birding in Western North Carolina in June, I had several opportunities to photograph the species. As usual, the birds proved difficult to capture.
I spent nearly 2 hours trying to get a single good shot but these guys just weren’t cooperating. Always in bad light, turned around or (mostly) just too far away. Honestly, it was frustrating but then I remembered that some birds can be friendlier than others. Perhaps I just needed a more amicable subject? So I decided to abandon that spot and head down the mountain to find another (and hopefully more cooperative) Black-throated blue Warbler to photograph. As luck would have it, I ended up spotting a male feeding its youngster (at least I think it was his, there was a Canada Warbler nearby too!) under just a mile away.
He wasn’t bothered by my presence one bit! He’d fly down from the trees (often landing very close by) in order to grab an insect to feed to the little one waiting patiently below. So cool!
Black-throated Blue Warblers are stunning. The males are dressed in black, blue and white plumage while the females are a lovely shade of sage green, bluish grey and tan.Weighing in at .37 ounces and measuring just 5.7 inches in length these guys are tough to photograph as they move quickly in the trees picking at the the underside of leaves in search of a meal. During the breeding season, look for these gorgeous birds in spruce-fir,hardwood, hemlock, or White Pine forests containing evergreen rhododendrons and Mountain Laurel mainly above 3,000 feet. When autumn arrives migrants are typically found in the understory or shrub layers, usually hardwoods, within various forest types. They’ll stick around NC through mid October days before heading south for the winter. This means you’ve still got plenty of time to find one this year!
