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James Tornetta

@tornetta_wildlife

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MontCo, PA | @conncollege
📸 Canon R5m2
19 y/o Amateur Wildlife Photographer specializing in birds 🦅

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To celebrate the 4th, I strung up some red, white, and blue fairy lights on my back patio to see if I could get some unique hummingbird photos. The only problem was that the “white” lights were definitely more yellow than white. Hope you enjoy these shots, and happy 250th birthday! 🇺🇸 #rubythroatedhummingbird #4thofjuly #resilient_wild #redwhiteandblue #shotoncanon by @tornetta_wildlife

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21 days ago

Back in May, my friend @blu3_ja3 and I were lucky enough to discover a female Hooded Warbler building her nest. Hooded Warblers nest very low to the ground, and this one was no exception. I was surprised by how close she had chosen to build it to the trail. We quickly realized that she wasn’t the least bit afraid of us. We sat quietly on the trail for a couple of hours as she worked away, occasionally pausing to interact with her mate. He would bring her food, allowing her to focus entirely on building the nest. His visits were brief, but it was really special to see how the two of them worked together. While she did the building, he remained nearby and attentive, appearing whenever she needed him.When I returned a couple of days later to check on her progress, I immediately noticed that three eggs had been laid. Two belonged to the warbler, but the larger, bluish one was a Brown-headed Cowbird egg. I watched the nest from a distance for a couple of hours that day and never saw her return, which made me wonder whether she had abandoned it because of the cowbird egg, a response this species is known to have.Rather than building nests of their own, Brown-headed Cowbirds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. When a cowbird finds a Hooded Warbler nest, it may remove or damage one or more of the warbler’s eggs before replacing them with one of its own. Any eggs left behind can also be damaged badly enough that they are no longer viable.Hooded Warblers are among the species most frequently parasitized by cowbirds. Because this nest was so close to the trail, its discovery made some sense, cowbirds take advantage of forest fragmentation to reach areas that would otherwise be less accessible to them.Intrigued by what I had witnessed, I did some more reading and learned that, fortunately, Hooded Warblers have a remarkably long nesting season, one that extends beyond the cowbirds’ breeding season. While Hooded Warbler nests built in May are especially vulnerable to parasitism, nests built in late June and July are rarely parasitized because the cowbirds have largely finished breeding by then.#hoodedwarbler #shotoncanon #wonderofwarblers #natgeoyourshot by @tornetta_wildlife

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7 days ago

I had no idea Black-and-white Warblers nested on the ground until this spring when I noticed one acting strangely at the base of a tree covered in exposed roots. It kept hopping around with food in its bill, and after watching for a minute I realized there was a nest tucked into the roots. Once the adult headed off to forage, I took a quick peek inside and found four hungry chicks. After that discovery, my warbler luck seemed to take off, and I ended up finding nests or recently fledged young of several other species, some of which I’ve already shared here. Hope you enjoy these photos, and let me know which image is your favorite!*Nest pics taken at 400mm and cropped. The adults did not feel threatened by me and made multiple feeding runs to the chicks while I sat still, watching them.#blackandwhitewarbler #shoot_small #shotoncanon #madewithluminar #natgeoyourshot by @tornetta_wildlife

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a month ago

Of all the breeding warblers I found and photographed this spring, this was easily my favorite encounter.About ten minutes into walking a random forest road in Delaware State Forest, I heard a chipping call and found a female Cerulean Warbler sitting almost at eye level. That immediately set off alarm bells because Ceruleans aren’t exactly known for hanging out low.I stood still and waited. Eventually she flew over and fed a fledgling hidden nearby, confirming exactly what I had hoped. For the next few hours I watched her shuttle food back and forth while going about her day. I never found the male and only saw the one chick, but I wasn’t complaining.#ceruleanwarbler #chick #wonderofwarblers #shotoncanon #natgeoyourshot by @tornetta_wildlife

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2 months ago

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2 months ago

After four unsuccessful mornings chasing this Worm-eating Warbler, things finally came together. Once I figured out which tree he liked to sing in, it became a waiting game, and I couldn’t believe it when he eventually came down to forage almost at eye level right in front of me. Let me know which shot you like best down in the comments!👇 #wormeatingwarbler #warbler #natgeoyourshot #shotoncanon #madewithluminar by @tornetta_wildlife

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2 months ago

Kicking off #warblerwednesday with something a bit unique. This Blue-winged Warbler landed on a chainlink fence running through his powerline cut territory for a split second. I wasn’t loving it at first, but it ended up giving the shot a look I kind of like.#bluewingedwarbler #resilient_wild #wonderofwarblers #natgeoyourshot by @tornetta_wildlife

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2 months ago

Busy stretch lately, but I didn’t want these April Osprey shots to sit any longer. More coming soon, so stay tuned! #osprey #fishhawk #shotoncanon #madewithluminar #natgeoyourshot by @tornetta_wildlife

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3 months ago

I could only watch in awe as this Osprey cruised through golden hour with a fish in its talons, backlit wings shining.#osprey #shotoncanon #natgeoyourshot #madewithluminar #topazlabs by @tornetta_wildlife

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3 months ago

Happy Earth Day from this not-so-happy Osprey 🙃#osprey #earthday #shotoncanon #natgeoyourshot #madewithluminar by @tornetta_wildlife

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3 months ago

Tried a more low-key, artistic edit on this one since a lot of you wanted to see more of that, so I hope you like it! And don’t worry, plenty more regular Osprey content coming for you portrait folks 😉 #osprey #shotoncanon #natgeoyourshot #madewithluminar #shoot_small by @tornetta_wildlife

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3 months ago

Recently, I was able to photograph this cool variation of a familiar species, a rare “storm” Wigeon showing extra white across the face.Roughly ~1 in 500 to 1 in 1,000 male American Wigeons show the “storm” (white-cheeked) variation. #americanwigeon #stormwigeon #ducksunlimited #shoot_small #resilient_wild by @tornetta_wildlife

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3 months ago