1\/5000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nThree days ago in the Wasatch Mountains I hit a warbler hotspot – a small area near a stream where warblers, both Yellow and Yellow-rumped, seemed to be everywhere. The latter species in particular was in a feeding frenzy, flying from spot to spot as they gleaned insects from low vegetation rather than in trees. That meant they were mostly out in the open but they were almost impossible to follow with my lens. They would land in one spot, snatch up their insect snack and then be off before I could get locked on to them. It was great practice for a bird photographer but frustrating and humbling as well.<\/p>\n
But this one got thirsty and went down to the stream for a drink. As it did so it paused on this rock for longer than usual so I was able to get some photos. For a variety of reasons, including the steep shooting angle, I don’t think it’s a great shot but in my experience the rock perch is quite unusual for the species so I found it interesting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thirteen minutes later and not far out of frame at upper left I witnessed what may have been the most vicious bird fight I’ve ever seen and yes it involved two of these lovely and gentle-looking warblers. It probably lasted for most (or perhaps all) of a minute as they duked it out. The action was incredibly fast as the furious little ball of feathers consisting of two birds jumped from spot to spot. At first they were mostly out in the open but they moved so fast I could never get a shot of both birds.<\/p>\n
Then they went into a small brush pile and really had it out. All I could see through the brush was a cluster of feathers rolling around that reminded me of two MMA fighters locked in near-mortal combat.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/yellow-rumped-warbler-0715-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"yellow-rumped-warbler-0715-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
This is one of the only shots I was able to get of either or both birds during the fight. This one had taken refuge in a small low-growing shrub and this was its defensive reaction as its antagonist swooped in for another attack.<\/p>\n
It was a fight I won’t soon forget. I actually thought there was a good chance one of the birds would be killed but I believe both of them escaped with their lives, if not with all of their feathers.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
FYI – Mia apparently solved my computer problem. It turns out that one of my three peripheral hard drives has an issue that was preventing my primary computer from booting up. When it’s unplugged the computer boots just fine and after boot-up is complete I can plug it back in and everything works. Thankfully that hard drive is one I seldom use.<\/em><\/p>\nThat enigma caused a lot of stress before it was solved. Computers – love’em and hate’em.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And man, can these lovely little birds ever fight!<\/p>\n
Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[334,394,1278],"tags":[140,3131,311,1279],"class_list":["post-72195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-fighting-bird-behaviors","category-yellow-rumped-warbler","tag-fighting","tag-setophaga-coronata","tag-utah-2","tag-yellow-rumped-warbler-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/yellow-rumped-warbler-0500-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-iMr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/yellow-rumped-warbler-0500-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"yellow-rumped-warbler-0500-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n