Painted Redstart foraging

I got this photo of the Painted Redstart while it was foraging--it has it's head down and somewhat tilted as it goes after an insect. This pic shows the white wing patch nicely.

Painted Redstarts are a southwestern U.S. speciality whose range in mostly from Central America north into Mexico, but it comes up into parts of Arizona, S. Nevada, S California, N central New Mexico. Another finger of range comes up into the Big Bend National Park area of Texas. Canon City is far from its normal range (though we do have a number of other southwest specialities such as our population of Black Phoebes, Curve-billed Thrashers, Chihuahuan Ravens, Ladder-backed Woodpeckers and the mostly southwestern Rufous-crowned Sparrows).
SeEtta

Painted Redstart fanning its tail feathers

Painted Redstarts have a habit of fanning their tail feathers on a fairly frequent basis. I got these photos of this bird doing so, taken from almost directly beneath the bird. The photo clearly shows the 3 white outer tail feathers that Painted Redstarts have (actually the two most outer feathers are white while the innermost of these outer feathers is partially white)

Birds of North America online has an interesting note on the tail-spreading behavior--"The behavior may be connected to this redstart’s method of feeding—startling prey into movement as it gleans, hover gleans, or hawks insects on the ground, on tree trunks, or among branches and twigs.".

I watched this bird a number of shorter periods that likely added up to over a half hour of viewing. It foraged whenever I watched it and seemed pretty successful at catching insects. It also called actively for stretches of time, then would fall silent for a period.
SeEtta