Bushtit – a unique bird species

George Walter

Photo by Jill Severn

A friend tells me bushtits “charm her socks off.” She loves the constant, cheery little sounds these tiny birds make. She says if she were going to be a bird, she’d want to be a bushtit because “they always seem to be having such a good time together.”

There are eight species of bushtits but seven of them live in Eurasia, and only one lives here, in Western North America – called the American Bushtit. Their range is from Western British Columbia to southern Mexico.

A map of areas where Bushtit can be found.

These birds are among the smallest songbirds, about kinglet-sized. They are plump and large-headed with long tails (like a grey ping-pong ball with a long tail sticking out). They have short stubby bills, a great identification sign. The only notable difference between males and females is the color of the iris; females have pale eyes, males dark. But since they are in near constant motion, good luck seeing their eye color.

They are two-tone grey, lighter on the breast and belly and darker on the back and wings. In the Pacific Northwest, including Thurston County, they have a brown wash on their heads. There are numerous sub-species of the American Bushtit, some totally light grey and some with a variable black mark slash across the male’s face.

But it is their behavior, more than their appearance, that set these birds aside from other species of small songbirds. First, they are always in groups, usually of 5-25 individuals. You will never see a single Bushtit. Sometimes a participant in the Christmas Bird Count records a single Bushtit; either they missed the rest of the flock, or it wasn’t a Bushtit.

These flocks seldom “hang out” with other species; they make their own way, wandering about in search of various plant-feeding insects and spiders. They even pry off scale insects from tree bark. They do not eat seeds and seldom are seen at feeders, except for suet feeders. It seems that some individual Bushtit flocks in recent decades have discovered a taste for suet and those flocks will raid a suet feeder with a voracious appetite.

Their communal nesting behaviors are also unusual. One mated pair build a nest but several other adults (the aunts and uncles?) stay nearby. The nest is unique – a hanging sock of woven grasses and other materials, including spider webs, sometimes decorated with bits of bark. I observed one several years ago; it was about eight inches deep and the adults (4-5 at least) were quite busy entering and exiting, presumably feeding the young.

The nest of a Bushtit. "The nest is unique – a hanging sock of woven grasses and other materials, including spider webs, sometimes decorated with …

The number of eggs laid is highly variable, with 5-6 being typical. Sometimes the pair will produce a second brood, using the same nest. And, in rearing the second brood of nestlings, the fledglings from the first nesting will become helpers feeding their siblings.

Except during breeding time, these birds do not have a home territory. Rather, they are very active, with the flock constantly on the move. Still, they are considered a non-migratory species; they move around but do not follow a seasonal migration pattern.

Bushtits are in constant motion, flicking their tails and frequently uttering a “tik tik” call (sometimes written “spik”). It’s this constant motion and activity, of individuals and the flock, and the plain grey color, that should first alert you to the correct identification. With binoculars you can sometimes see the details of the stubby bill and iris eye color.

These are common birds that you might not see for weeks or months, but then they will surprise you by popping up almost anywhere, from the countryside to various urban habitat patches. Be ready.

What’s in a name? The name “tit” is a common usage in Britain for any number of small birds. It apparently is of ancient origin. Some sources credit it as onomatopoeic, developing as a name from the general locator vocalization of these small birds (“tick, tick”). Others, to an old expression for a small matter, still found in the expression “tit for tat.”

Not using the name “tit” may be disappointing to adolescents and new birders, but when they’ve seen a flock of bushtits, the birds’ charm usually outweighs their regret.

George Walter is environmental program manager at the Nisqually Indian Tribe’s natural

resources department: he also has a 40+ year interest in bird watching. He may be reached at george@theJOLTnews.com

Photos for this column are provided by Liam Hutcheson, a 17-year-old Olympia area birder and avid photographer.