Male common yellowthroat – this dapper bandit was hunting for breakfast when I found him, and had the good fortune to see him return to a perch with a fresh caterpillar in his beak!
It is interesting to imagine how birds – and other creatures – visualize their world. This yellowthroat hunted through a swath of wild field, repeating his search pattern every few minutes. I could track his movements by the rustle of plants as he moved through them out of sight, and then he would reappear and return to one of several perches in the area to either consume any morsel he had found, or seemingly to rest and prepare for his next search.
He had clearly identified this section of the field as a promising hunting ground, and appeared to be methodically searching through it plant-by-plant. Why this particular section appealed to him is outside of my understanding, but I spent at least fifteen minutes wholly engaged with watching him as he worked.