Black Phoebe family and photo of juvenile
Yesterday I had the opportunity to follow the family of Black Phoebes that nested near the McKenzie Ave bridge over the Arkansas River in Canon City. They were moving further from the bridge as they foraged in the increasingly hot late morning, with temps rising into the 90's (it hit 97 in the afternoon). So they were staying on the shady side of the river, which meant that since I had permission to be on the private property on the other side of the river I could follow them without intruding.
Though I saw 4 birds last week, there were only 3 yesterday. I was able to identify one as clearly a juvenile both by plumage and by the fact I watched one still being fed by an adult. This bird still has a small amount of the orange on its beak. I was not able to tell if the third bird was a second juvenile or the other adult. It is possible that the mother bird is renesting while the father takes care of the offspring as I have seen this happen before. The juvenile in this photo was sallying out from the branches. Though usually unsuccessful, I did see it catch a few insects.
These phoebes ended up about a half mile from the bridge, in an area with several large cottonwood trees that had large branches falling towards and overhanging the river. This provided a perfect micro-climate for this species, especially on this hot day. It has been my experience that Black Phoebes often use streamsides with overhanging branches, likely because they provide a sheltered and cool, shady location for them to forage and rest. I have often watched Black Phoebes sit quietly on an overhanging branch for periods of time, intersperced by short sallying flights to grab an insect. And sometimes the branches drop into the water creating small pools of quieter water where flying insects abound.
I do want to add that, though I almost never do any editing other than cropping/enlarging of my photos, I did use some software editing on this photo as the light was awful (bright where I stood and shady where the bird perched).
SeEtta
