 Vermilion Flycatchers, mid-town Tucson, April 8, 2026. It is springtime in Arizona, and birds everywhere are tending to their nests! For some species, such as Gambel's Quail, the eggs hatch all at once with the offspring up and about within a day, following mom and dad in a long conga line looking for food. For other species, like Vermilion Flycatchers or House Finches, the hatchlings are incapable of moving around on their own and need mom and dad for food and warmth.* Even after leaving the nest and learning to fly, these dependent chicks, now fledglings, still look to their parents for food. Let's drop in on a finch family meal . . . . *Species with self-sufficient hatchlings are Precocial, those that arrive dependent are Altricial. (Ref: Avian Report) House Finches at the Pond at Elephant Head Canon R5 Mk II, RF 100-500mm at 500mm, 1/4000 sec., f/7.1, ISO 1000. On April 10th and 11th I joined a cadre of birding and camera buddies* for a trek to Dano Grayson's Pond at Elephant Head, just south of the Historic Canoa Ranch and east of Interstate 10. Saturday the 11th Dano set us up for songbird photography during the morning feeding frenzy. I was able to sneak a peek at this family of four House Finches. Above in mid-frame are two adults, the dad in red plumage to the far left, mom immediately to his right. Joining them are two fledglings, one perched high and very intent on mom, and his sibling to the far right and a bit lower in the frame. The fledglings still have whispy white feathers on their heads, likely left over from their earliest nest plumage. *If you are a photographer and want to meet some really nice people and have a great time doing all sorts of photography, including wildlife, check out the Club Camera Tucson. Highly recommended!  Above, one fledgling begs for food, while his sibling checks out the weird people in the camera blind.  Dano generously put out a combination of specialized suet along with live meal worms which attracted the birds.
Fledgling birds will flutter their wings and often volcalize as a sign to their parents that they are hungry. This behavior is common among many species, and an easy way for the bird watcher/photographer to pick up on a young family group. Here is a series of shots demonstrating the behavior in this fledgling House Finch begging for food from mom. This sequence was shot over less than a second at 30 frames per second.
 "Hey mom, I'm here, I'm hungry! " It appears to be a strategy that works!  Vermilion Flycatchers Eating on the Run! Canon R5 Mk II, RF 100-500mm at 500mm, 1/2000 sec., f/7.1, ISO 6400, EV -1. Our second family group consists of Vermilion Flycatchers near a pond in mid-town. Getting photographs of Vermilions is not easy! They move very fast and over a wide range, going from tree to tree, branch to branch, wherever they can find bugs! The fledglings, begging for food, move more slowly, staking out a good branch, and waiting for mom or dad to make a quick delivery. Above and below, a fledgling gets breakfast from dad while a sibling aggressively competes for food.  Above, dad turns his head upside down to get a good angle on his target.   Above and below, the unfed sibling pursues his father to an adjacent mesquite tree. "Feed me! Feed me!"  Eating On the Run, Part II . . . . . Canon R5 Mk II, RF 100-500mm at 500mm, 1/3200 sec., f/7.1, ISO 12800, EV +2.33. Above, on another day, perhaps the same family in the same spot. Below, junior has managed to capture a sizable bug, maybe a dragonfly, while dad looks on.   The fledgling is not sure what to do with his catch. Dad watches from the sidelines for what seemed like an eternity, but was really only a few seconds.  Finally dad concludes, "Enough of this! Stop playing with your food!", and closes in to seize junior's catch. They tussle over the insect until dad prevails and retreats to another branch to work on meal prep.   Below, dad returns, with stern advice, "This is how you do it!" Below, junior got fed, and hopefully learned something in the process.  More "Take-out for the Kids" from the Archive . . .Nesting occurs every spring (although some species do nest year round) and with it comes the "feed the kids" ritual we have seen above. So, I dug down into my archive of past posts and found five of my favorites: one from the Texas coast during spring migration, one from Tucson, and three from Mt. Lemmon. To open up the post, click on either the title or the image to the right. I hope you enjoy them!
That's all for now. Stay tuned for more! Happy Trails!
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AuthorHenry Johnson, photographer and author of this site. For more detail, see About Categories
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