Bushtit
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Aegithalidae
Genus: Psaltriparus
Species: minimus
**Bushtit Audio Coming Soon**
Description
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Length: 4.5"
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Wing span: 6.5"
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Weight: 0.24 oz (6.8 grams)
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Very small songbird
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Palin gray-brown with NO markings
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Short black bill
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Female has pale yellow iris while the males is black **first two photos to the right is an adult Interior female**
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Bushtit with a black mask are rare varients found mainly in Texas
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Bushtits that are more brown than gray overall and who have an obvious brownish crown reside on the pacific coast areas **Last 2 photos**
Factoids:
- A very small, drab gray bird with a long tail and a social nature. Bushtits are usually found in flocks of up to 40 individuals, often mixed in with other species
- The Bushtit is the only member of its family in the Americas; seven other species are found in Eurasia. All have similar complex hanging nests
- The Bushtit 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
- Bushtits glean insects off foliage often hanging upside down. They Use one foot to bend back foliage to expose the middle of clumps on the underside of the leaves
All photographs and audio clips are ©Jamie Mullin 2006
Sources: Cornell Lab of Ornithology & The Sibley Guide to Birds.
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