Overview

Bushtit: Tiny, acrobatic bird with gray-brown upperparts and paler underparts. Eyes are dark brown, bill is tiny, and tail is long. Coastal race has brown crown. Inland race has gray cap and brown ear patch. Black-eared race has black mask, ear patch. Weak fluttering flight.

Bushtit: Resident from extreme southwestern British Columbia, southern Idaho, southwestern Wyoming, and Colorado southward. Also found along the Pacific coast states and south into inland Mexico. The preferred habitats include coastal forests among second-growth alder thickets and edges of coniferous forests composed of maple, dogwood, and birch.

Voice Text

"tsip", "pit"

• Both the male and female will incubate the eggs, sometimes even at the same time.
• Bushtits travels in flocks of up to 60 birds until breeding season when they break off into pairs.
• The nest is an impressive, woven, hanging basket with a hole high up on the side of the nest and a passageway to the nest chamber at the bottom. It can be up to a foot long, and is generally built of spider webs, moss, lichen, and other plant material.
• This bird often has helpers at the nest, birds other than the parental pair that feed nestlings. All family members sleep together in the complex nest during breeding, but they leave it after the young fledge, and sleep on branches.

• Chestnut-backed Chickadee
• Juniper Titmouse
• Wrentit
• Oak Titmouse
• Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
• Verdin
• Bridled Titmouse
• Mountain Chickadee

Bushtits (Aegithalidae)

ORDER

The bushtits are one of the one hundred eighteen families of birds in the order PASSERIFORMES (pronounced pas-ser-i-FOR-meez); a large taxonomic order that includes treecreepers, mockingbirds, gnatcatchers, birds of paradise, and several other families.

FAMILY TAXONOMY

A family restricted to Europe, Asia and North America, the Aegithalidae (pronounced ee-jih-THAL-uh-dee), is composed of thirteen species of long-tailed tits and bushtits in four genera.

NORTH AMERICA

There is one species of bushtit in one genus in North America, the Bushtit (known by some authorities as the American Bushtit).

KNOWN FOR

The Bushtit is known for its acrobatic behavior and squeaky vocalizations that seem to match its “cute” appearance.

PHYSICAL

The Bushtit is a small bird with a short bill and fairly long tail. It has a short, pointed bill, short wings, and a rounded head; overall they are quite similar in shape to chickadee species. It also has medium length legs and strong feet useful for its acrobatic movements.

COLORATION

The sole member of this family in North America has light gray plumage with brown highlights on the head and tail. Bushtit populations in Texas and southern New Mexico have a black patch on the face. In all populations, the small bill is all black and the eye yellowish in adult birds.

GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT

In North America, the Bushtit occurs in the Pacific Northwest, and much of the western United States east to central Texas and south into the mountains of Mexico. The sole member of this family in North America is quite common in suburban areas, and is also found in variety of scrub and forested habitats.

MIGRATION

The Bushtit is a non-migratory, permanent resident.

HABITS

The Bushtit is a very social bird, especially outside of the breeding season when it is often found in flocks of forty or more individuals. This species often joins mixed flocks composed of other small bird species, the large numbers of Bushtits often making it the most numerous species in the flock. They flock together for protection against predators, foraging by gleaning the foliage for small arthropods. In the process of investigating nooks and crannies in the vegetation, they frequently hang upside down.

CONSERVATION

The Bushtit is a fairly common species that is not threatened.

INTERESTING FACTS

Like other members of the Aegithalidae, the Bushtit builds an impressive, woven nest much larger than the bird itself. Both parents sleep in the nest until the young fledge, and are often helped by other bushtits in feeding the young.

Author

Artist

Michael Oberhofer