One of the smallest passerines in North America, are the bushtits (psaltriparus minimus). Passerines are any birds that come from the scientific order Passeriformes. These birds are also the only species of its kind to live in Canada and even in British Columbia. They are one of the most social birds that you’ll ever come across and are usually found amongst 10-40 (The Cornell…c2015) other bushtits. But they are so small, only weighing about 4-6g (The Cornell…c2015), that you’ll only notice them when they all start flying out of a tree. Luckily you won’t miss the chance to see these little birds as they often do not migrate and like to stay in the same areas all year round.

These birds have nothing special about their colours but they do come across as cute puff balls! It is hard to differentiate feather colour between male and female bushtits, as they are plain, gray-drab birds with a long tail and a short beak. But an obvious difference between male and female is that males have a dark eye while females have a yellow iris around the pupil. An interesting fact is that bushtits have slightly different colouration depending on the geography. If you see them in the south such as New Mexico, the male bushtits there appear to have black feathers around the ears and eyes (McKnight, 1969).

 

Bushtits have a large breeding distribution range, they are found in the Pacific Coast of British Columbia and the entire Rocky Mountain chain, all the way down to central America along the coastline and the United States interior (Packert et el, 2010). They live in well diverse habitats, from lowlands of wooded or brushy areas such as oak scrubs, mixed woods, and junipers to middle elevations in the mountains of pine-oak woods, oak forest, and well-wooded suburbs (Audubon, 2017). Because of their wide spread distributions, Bushtits are not lacking in numbers and we can safely say that we do not have to worry about their endangerment (Audubon, 2017).

But besides trying to find these tiny birds amidst the scrubs and hidden in between leaves, if you listen hard enough you should be able to hear the chatters of a flock communicating to each other. They chip in a faint one-syllabled simple note and are usually in irregular successions (tsit, tsit; tsit; tsit). (Grinnell, 1903) They talk when they are foraging for small insects and spiders. Bushtits will eat any small insects from beetle, caterpillars, and ants to very tiny insects that adhere to leaves and twigs (The Cornell…c2015). There are sometime stragglers that have trouble catching up to the main flock, so they will start chipping to each other as an indication of their whereabouts.  When predators are near they will all start uttering sharp alarm notes (scre-e-e-e-e-e, etc) (Grinnell, 1903) to warn each other until everyone is in unison. This confuses their predators because the bushtits are scattered in all shrubs and trees so it is hard for the predator to locate a single bird.

A bushtit’s call [link]

One of the most unique thing about bushtits are their nests. It is not the typical nest that you see other birds make with twigs and branches, these are hanging nests. That’s right, these nests are built a foot below an overhanging branch and constructed from mosses, lichen, oak leaves, and spider webs that help blend with their surroundings (Addicott, 1938). The inside is insulated with materials such as feathers, fur and downy plant matter (The Cornell…c2017). And the nest itself is like a long pendant bag and entrance to the nest consists of a hole at the top and above it is the hood to cover it (Addicott, 1938). It takes these little birds a considerable amount of time and energy to make these nests just so they can lay their eggs. The shortest time recorded was 13 days and the longest went up to 51 days (Addicott, 1938). And they will lay about 4-10 clutches a nest. These nests are reusable for the second year of breeding or other pairs of bushtits can claim abandoned nests as well.

The video below is a close up view of a bushtit’s nest and around the 1:00 mark you can see a bushtit flying in and out of the nest.

Bushtits may not have the most vibrant colours nor do they have crazy features, eg; a steller’s jay fohawk or a peacock’s tail but I’m sure their name itself caught your attention. Fun fact, tit comes from their scientific name Psaltriparus minimus, which Psaltriparus, “parus”, is Latin for titmouse. And “tit” originates from Old Icelandic word “titr” meaning something small. (Kraft, 2009) Keep an eye out on my next blog post about some scientific research I found on these cuties!

Literature Cited

Addicott A. 1938. Behavior of the Bush-Tit in the Breeding Season. The Condor. 40(2): 49-63. [Link]

Audubon: Guide to North American Birds. c2017. New York: National Auduborn Society; [accessed 2017 October 4]. [Link]

Grinnell J. 1903. Call Notes of the Bush-Tit. The Condor. 5(4): 85-87. [Link]

Kraft C. 2009 October 7. Bushtit: long-tailed tits are birds, seriously [blog]. Wild Things & other earthly concerns. [accessed 2017 October 4]. [Link]

McKnight, CB. 1969. Change in Facial Coloration in a Bushtit. The Auk. 86(3): 570. [Link]

Packert M, Martens J, Sun Y. 2010. Phylogeny of long-tailed tits and allies inferred from mitochondrial and nuclear markers (Aves: Passeriformes, Aegithalidae). Elsevier. 55(3): 952-967.  [Link]

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology: All About Birds. c2015. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University; [accessed 2017 October 4]. [Link]