A Juvenile Phoebe

May 31, 2026

There has been an Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) nest on top of the light at my back door for a bit now. The residents have been extremely cautious and I would not even know that it’s there except for the nest itself sitting there in plain view, high above.

This afternoon my *always on the alert for all things nature oriented* husband noticed a bird sitting on the hook in the vegetable garden, and called my attention to it. It was sitting there looking just like a Phoebe, and flicked its tail like they always do but something was wrong. The bird had an incredibly subtle wrong color look about it. Head and wings with a slight cinnamon tint rather than the expected total gray look. Chest speckled rather than a more solid gray.

Turns out this is a juvenile from that nest. First time my camera has ever captured one!

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Published by

Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.