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Photo of a Bushtit collecting nesting material.

Photo © William Webb

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Bushtit

Common Name: Bushtit

Scientific Name: Psaltripus minimus

Appearance: The Bushtit is a very small, gray perching bird (Mass 0.2 oz. [6 g] , Length 4.0” [11 cm]). Bushtits have short wings and a long tail. The breast and belly are a lighter shade of gray than most of the upperparts. The small bill is black, as well are the relatively long tarsi. The iris is black in males, but cream to yellow-colored in females. Coastal birds have a brown crown, while interior birds have brown ear patches and a gray cap. Some birds have black ear coverts - a polymorphism that occurs most frequently in males and in the southwestern part of the range.

Habitat/Where to find: The Bushtit occupies a variety of habitats, usually with a deciduous component. Bushtits are common in western woodlands, chaparral, juniper brush, parks, suburbs, and gardens. The range of the Bushtit includes the southwestern U.S. west of the Rockies and west of the Cascades in the northwest. Bushtits extend as far north as Vancouver Island and southwest coastal British Columbia and eastward to west-central Texas. Their range also includes northern Baja California and the mountains of central and eastern Mexico as well as southwestern Guatemala.

Sounds: Bushtits produce frequent vocalizations which often makes them easy to locate. They do not produce any extended song-like vocalizations, but instead utter many short, simple sounds including frequent “tssip” and “pit” contact calls. Individuals separated from their flocks will sometime produce a high frequency, bell-like “sre-e-e-e” which carries a long distance. If an avian predator is detected, bushtits will respond with a warning “sre-e-e-e-e-e-e” call. When mobbing predators or engaged in other agonistic interactions, bushtits sometimes produce emphatic “spit-spit” calls.

Behavior: Bushtits are very agile and active birds, often hanging upside down by one foot as they glean food from vegetation. Their flight is weak, and they normally fly short distances within trees or from tree to tree. Bushtits live in large flocks of a dozen or more birds whose membership remains stable year-round. Bushtit flocks maintain loosely defined group territories, but frequently forage in mixed-species flocks with kinglets, titmice, chickadees and other foliage gleaners. At night, bushtits form communal roosts in which individuals huddle closely together in order to conserve body heat.

Reproduction: Most bushtits breed monogamously, but in some populations, up to 37% of the nests have an extra adult, or supernumerary. Nest supernumeraries can be male or female, juvenile or adult, but frequently they are adult males that have lost a nest and/or a mate. Nests are gourd-shaped, mostly gray-colored hanging pouches constructed in 13-51 days with grass, moss, lichens, leaves, cocoons, feathers, and scraps of anthropogenic fabrics. Both sexes share incubation of 5-7 white eggs. Young remain in the nest for 15 days and are fed by both parents. Most pairs raise two broods per year.

Food Habits: Bushtits are foliage gleaners - consuming insects, larvae, insect eggs, and spiders from foliage, branches, and twigs. They occasionally eat fruit and berries. Bushtits usually feed in large flocks of several dozen birds. While foraging, they make short hops and flights within trees and shrubs, frequently hanging upside down and bending back foliage with one foot

Vital Statistics: Both male and female bushtits are sexually mature in their first year after hatching, and attempt to breed at this time. Unpaired first-year males will become nonbreeding floaters or join breeding pairs as supernumeraries. The oldest recorded bushtit lived at least 8 years and 5 months. There is very little data on survivorship.

Migration/Dispersal: Bushtits are non-migratory, year-round residents. Bushtit flocks occupy territories ~100 ha and breeding pairs place nests within this area. Parents and fledglings temporarily remain as a family group and then gradually assimilate into the larger flock. Young disperse from their natal flock to adjoining flocks in the late summer or early fall of their hatch year, or they wait until the early spring of their first year. Some individuals in higher elevation populations move down slope in the winter months.