This little bird was planning on a big lunch. This is an Eastern Phoebe that had captured a large flying bug and seemed intent on showing it off before taking it home to the family.

I’d been watching this little bird fly around the yard. It would often land on the chain-linked fence post not far from me.  I decided to position myself as close as thought I could be without scaring the bird from landing again.  Then I simply stood and waited with my camera focused on the top of that post.  It took a little while, but it finally landed and, to my delight, had a huge bug in its beak.  (In the near future, I’ll share a profile photo of this bird; where you can see the bug a bit better.)

On the website All About Songbirds, they share about the Eastern Phoebe – “The Eastern Phoebe is a plump songbird with a medium-length tail. It appears large-headed for a bird of its size. The head often appears flat on top, but phoebes sometimes raise the feathers up into a peak. Like most small flycatchers, they have short, thin bills used for catching insects.  The Eastern Phoebe generally perches low in trees or on fencelines. Phoebes are very active, making short flights to capture insects and very often returning to the same perch. They make sharp “peep” calls in addition to their familiar “phoebe” vocalizations. When perched, Eastern Phoebes wag their tails down and up frequently.”

I snapped this in a shaded area and I was still far enough away it required quite a bit of cropping to get this view.

This is one image you’ll really want to view full-screen. To do so, simply click on the photo.

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