Mountain Bluebirds – Adult Female and 3 Fledgelings

Visiting Custer State Park in South Dakota. One of the best wildlife parks to visit. It has everything from the great old male Buffalo to some of the tiniest birds.

A good place for birds is in the airport area. The fenceposts are very popular.

Traveling around the Wildlife Loop Road this family of Mountain Bluebirds (Sialia currucoides) were so entertaining and obviously felt quite safe with us not too far away.

The adult female was quite intent on feeding her fledgelings with a supply of freshly caught Grasshoppers.

Mother with grasshopper

The three fledgelings were at different places in a small area of fencing and the mother visited each in turn, offering a grasshopper.

Meals on Wings

Sometimes the adult just wasn’t fast enough for the rapidly growing fledgeling.

Feed Me !

The fledgelings were quite content to sit on their spot, probably having just left the nest on their maiden flight. However, one fledgeling was quite intent on exercising its wings. Obviously the drive for independence.

the most active fledgeling exercising its wings
Whoops, nearly off the wire!

Gear: Nikon D500, Nikkor 600.0mm f/4 VRII, Nikkor TC-14 EII, Nikon GP-1, Sony digital film, RRS TVC-34L Tripod and Full Gimbal Head.

3 Responses to “Mountain Bluebirds – Adult Female and 3 Fledgelings”

  1. Bruce KAY says:

    Love your work Richard.

  2. Fred Schwering says:

    Nice Shots Richard. I especially like the photos of the mother feeding the fledgelings.

  3. Barry Engleman says:

    Great shots! I love the wing exercise balancing act! The blue/green backgrounds are fabulous! We have a couple of the brightest blue Mountain Bluebirds I have ever seen here at our kids place in Summit County Colorado right now!

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: