Brown-headed and red-breasted nuthatches have been visiting my suet feeder for the last few months, and I have been looking for an opportunity to photograph them. Just as I was working out a way to do it, a yellow-rumped warbler decided to claim the suet as his own and defend it against anyone smaller or with less attitude. This included, unfortunately, all the nuthatches.

At times like this I try to remind myself to just go with what works. The nuthatches were chased off when ever they came into the yard. The warbler, however, was present constantly as he chased the other birds with his tail feathers flared. I made lots of photographs of him over several days but I like this one the best because of the way it shows his attitude. I get the sense from this photograph that he is starring right at me and I am next on his list! Can you really blame him though? I mean, wouldn’t you develop an attitude if people kept calling attention to some obvious feature of your posterior?

Yellow-rumped Warbler with an attitude