Bushtit
Bushtit
Psaltriparus minimus
At a Glance
Tiny, drab birds with light ticking and lisping callnotes, Bushtits are common in woods and mountains of the west, but they are often inconspicuous. A flock feeding in a tree may go almost unnoticed until the birds fly out, perhaps twenty or thirty of them, in a straggling single file to the next tree. They are very sociable at most seasons, and groups will roost huddled close together in a tight mass on cold nights.
All bird guide text and rangemaps adapted from Lives of North American Birds by Kenn Kaufman© 1996, used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Category
Bushtits, Perching Birds
IUCN Status
Least Concern
Habitat
Arroyos and Canyons, Forests and Woodlands, High Mountains, Urban and Suburban Habitats
Region
California, Northwest, Plains, Rocky Mountains, Southwest, Texas, Western Canada
Behavior
Flitter
Population
4.300.000
Range & Identification
Migration & Range Maps
Mostly a permanent resident. In the southwestern interior, where it breeds in foothills and mountains, small flocks may move into the lowlands in winter, even to many miles away from breeding habitat.
Description
3 3/4-4" (10 cm). Tiny, plain, with small bill, longish tail. Females have pale eyes, males dark eyes. Head browner on coastal birds. Young males in west Texas may have black ear patches. Often in large flocks in open woods.
Size
About the size of a Sparrow
Color
Black, Brown, Gray, Tan, White
Wing Shape
Rounded
Tail Shape
Long, Rounded, Wedge-shaped
Songs and Calls
Contact calls are light tsip and pit notes, constantly uttered. Alarm call is a high trill.
Call Pattern
Flat
Call Type
Chatter, Chirp/Chip
Habitat
Oak scrub, chaparral, mixed woods, pinyons, junipers. Lives in many kinds of wooded or brushy habitats, from the lowlands to middle elevations in the mountains, including chaparral, oak forest, pinyon-juniper and pine-oak woods, streamside groves, and well-wooded suburbs and city parks. Avoids high mountains and hot desert regions, but may appear in cottonwood-willow groves along desert streams in winter.
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Behavior
Eggs
5-7. White. Incubation is by both parents, about 12 days. Both parents may sleep in nest at night.
Young
Fed and brooded by both parents. Young leave nest about 14-15 days after hatching. 2 broods per year.
Feeding Behavior
Forages very actively in trees and shrubs, moving rapidly among foliage and small twigs, often hanging upside down at the ends of twigs while probing among pine needles or the bases of leaves. Except when nesting, usually forages in flocks.
Diet
Mostly insects. Feeds on a wide variety of tiny insects, especially leafhoppers, treehoppers, aphids, scale insects, caterpillars, and beetles; also wasps, ants, and many others, including eggs and pupae of many insects. Also eats some spiders, berries, and sometimes seeds.
Nesting
After winter flocks break up, pairs establish territories but do not defend them strongly, tolerating other Bushtits even near nest. If pairs are disturbed during early stages of nesting, they reportedly may abandon the effort and build a new nest, perhaps with a different mate. Nest site is in a tree or shrub, 8-35' above the ground, sometimes lower or higher. Nest (built by both sexes) is firmly attached to twigs and branches, a tightly woven hanging pocket, up to a foot long; small entrance hole near top leads to narrow passage which opens into nest chamber. Nest is made of spiderwebs, moss, grass, lichens, leaves, rootlets, twigs; inside lined with plant down, animal hair, feathers.
Conservation
Conservation Status
Widespread and common, numbers apparently stable.
Climate Threats Facing the Bushtit
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.