American Redstart

My recent trip to DGCA yielded yet another opportunity to photograph an American Redstart. This one was nearly eye-level, instead of being way up in a tree, and he was in foliage that was right next to the trail. As he moved through the foliage, I took several photos on a whim, not really confident that I would get anything worth sharing. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find that this photo was fairly sharp, even if the bird is not presenting his best side and there is some greenery in the way.

American Redstart at nest

Here is one last photo from the Sugarloaf hike. Very early in the hike, we stumbled across the nest of an American Redstart. It was right next to the trail, but since the trail does not get much traffic, I suspect that the few people who get near the nest just walk on by, not even noticing it. We lingered for a few minutes, a respectable distance away, while I attempted to get a picture of an adult feeding a nestling. The adults, however, did not give me much time to take a photo (I imagine their priorities were a tad different from mine). They would bring in some tasty morsel, quickly give it to one of the nestlings, and then be off again in search of more food. The photo below is the best I could muster under the circumstances, factoring in that I did not want to linger too long for fear of distressing the adults.

American Redstart

When I hiked the South River Falls Trail, one of the more common birds that I saw was American Redstart. When I say "common", I mean it. They were everywhere. By the end of the hike I was mumbling to myself "yet another Redstart" after taking the time to follow some movement in the trees with my binoculars so that I could identify its source. And like most Warblers, these birds are not what you could call passive. They are always on the move looking for the next tasty bug to catch and eat. In fact, one of the tricks used by American Redstart is to fan its orange and black tail in an attempt to flush insects out for the snagging.

Somehow I managed to get a reasonable photo of a male American Redstart. I have made many attempts at getting a photo of an American Redstart, but they usually move much faster than I can point and focus my camera. Either I got lucky, or this one took pity on me.