Photographs of Black-throated blue Warblers and the birds on the Arizona desert and other parts of the state

Black-throated Blue Warbler

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Black-throated Blue Warbler

For most of the month of April 2004 it was at the Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens.

This bird is a long way from its normal area.

To learn more click here http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Black-throated_Blue_Warbler.html

This is not the first time this bird has been reported to have been seen here in Phoenix, however,
I do believe this is the first time it has been seen in April.
I think it has been in the fall in the past that it has been sighted here.

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This is a very small bird possibly no more 5 inches in length.
Many of these birds spend the winters in Florida or the Caribbean.

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Arriving at the Botanical Garden about 8 AM with photographic equipment
I was immediately guided to the area where the bird had been seen.
It had already been spotted by a few birders which saved much time in getting started photographing it.

Warblers not being the easiest bird to photograph I snapped off a few shots of it in the trees just in case
I could not find it later on. However, as it turned out,
I do believe this bird did not mind having its picture taken,
or at least it was not afraid or much concerned about my presence in its area.

This shall be proven in the first image I show.

This is what I call an automatic reflex action photo.

Here's what happened. I was using a 400 mm macro sigma lens.
My flash unit has a telephoto lens on it.
I am leaning up against the base of the tree I had been trying to photograph the bird in.

A birder called out, the bird is at your feet!
I looked down, and sure enough, it was just inches from my feet.
Without thinking, or giving any thought to what photo equipment I had, I
pointed the camera down at the bird and snapped the image and what you see is what I got.
I did not think the photo would be any good because the flash unit is not geared to
light images that close possibly only 3 feet or less away or closer.
This is why only one half of the area is lit. By the way did you notice the toes of my shoes in the image.
It couldn't have been more than a few inches from the toes of my shoes

I could have taken many more images but I figured the one I took would not be any good so I didn't.
And; believe it or not the bird did not fly away.

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Please click on the images for a larger view.