Black-capped Vireo

© Tara Tanaka

Published: November 21, 2011

A Black-capped Vireo perches in a bush in South Llano River State Park in central Texas. Tara Tanaka of Tallahassee, Florida, took the photo from inside a photo blind, but she almost missed the bird.

She had been in the blind for a few hours hoping a Black-capped Vireo would show up, but in the early evening, "I decided that the Black-capped wasn’t meant to be that day and that I’d better pack up my gear and head back to the campsite and fix dinner for my husband and me," she tells us. "There were two other folks in the blind with me, so I picked up my camera and tripod and started to tiptoe out the door to break my equipment down outside so as not to disturb their viewing.

"Just as I got outside, I heard one of them say, 'There’s that little bird — over there, over there!'  I tiptoed back in and said, 'What bird? A Black-capped Vireo??' and got back a 'Yes, yes — over THERE!' I quickly sat down on the floor and turned my camera on and got a quick shot of the vireo in a tree before it flew. The bird bypassed a nearby water feature and landed in a bush about 25 feet away. I managed to get this photo before the bird disappeared, leaving behind three very excited birders."

Tara digiscoped the photo using a Kowa 884 scope, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 camera, and a Kowa TSN-PZ photo adapter. Look for her photo of a Painted Bunting, photographed from the same blind just a few hours earlier, in "Your View" in our February 2012 issue.

See Tara's photo of a Roseate Spoonbill

Read Laura Erickson's profile of the Black-capped Vireo

Find Black-capped Vireos at Canyon of the Eagles Nature Park and Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge in Texas

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