American Redstart - Michigan - May/June 2017

American Redstart - Michigan - 2017

American Redstarts breed in North America, across southern Canada and the eastern United States and winter in Central America, the West Indies, and northern South America. (Adapted from Wikipedia)

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American Redstart - Michigan - 2017

From Bird Web: "The male is black with orange patches on each wing, on the sides of its breast, and at the base of its tail on either side. The male's throat is black, but its breast and belly are white.


American Redstart - Michigan - 2017

From Bird Web: "American Redstarts are very active foragers. They glean some of their prey from foliage, but they capture most of their food in midair, flying or jumping into the air to snag prey. They commonly spread their tails and wings, displaying their orange or yellow spots. These flash-patterns may flush prey from the foliage, and also make American Redstarts relatively easy to find."


American Redstart - Michigan - 2017

From Bird Web: "The female is gray where the male is black, and yellow where the male is orange. The female also has a white eye-ring. Juveniles and first-year males look like females, although first-year males generally have some black on the upper breast or head.


American Redstart - Michigan - 2017

From Bird Watchers Digest: "... the American redstart flashes not red but orange in its tail, as well as on its wings and the sides of its breast. Otherwise, this warbler is black with a white belly. Birders call females and immatures “yellowstarts” because of similarly distinctive flashes of yellow (or in first-spring males yellow-orange) on the tail, wings, and the sides of the breast."

David Sparks

I retired in 2005 after 40 years of research and teaching at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (24 years), the University of Pennsylvania (8 years) and the Baylor College of Medicine (8 years). Photography is my retirement hobby.

Nature photography, especially bird photography, combines a number of things that I really enjoy: bird-watching, being outdoors, photography, travel, messing about with computers, and learning new skills and concepts.  I now spend much of my time engaged in these activities.

David Sibley in the preface to The Sibley Guide to Birds wrote "Birds are beautiful, in spectacular as well as subtle ways; their colors, shapes, actions, and sounds are among the most aesthetically pleasing in nature."  My goal is to acquire images that capture the beauty and uniqueness of selected species as well as images that highlight the engaging behaviors the birds exhibit.