General

Bushtit: Tiny, acrobatic bird with gray-brown upperparts and paler underparts. Eyes are dark brown, bill is tiny, and tail is long. Pacific coast race has brown crown. Rocky Mountain race has gray cap and brown ear patch. South New Mexico/Texas race has black mask and ear patch. Female has less distinct markings and pale yellow eyes.

Range and Habitat

Bushtit: Resident from extreme southwestern British Columbia, southern Idaho, southwestern Wyoming, and the Oklahoma panhandle southward. The preferred habitats include coastal forests among second-growth alder thickets and edges of coniferous forests composed of maple, dogwood, and birch.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"tsip", "pit"

Interesting Facts

 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.

 Both the male and female will incubate the eggs, sometimes even at the same time.

 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.

Author

Gary Owen Dick