Bushtit with nest building materials White Point Palos Verdes Penninsula 217
"...Nests are made from spider webs and a wide array of plant materials. This could partially explain the long assembly time because it must take forever to manipulate a spider web into doing your bidding without it sticking to you in the process. Once the outside is complete, the nest is lined with feathers and animal hair to make it warm and snuggly. The entrance and exit are a hole left at the top where the couple can fly in and out.
According to The Birds of North America Online database, this sturdy nest also makes the perfect incubator for eggs during the day and the lower half is sometimes placed strategically in the sun to enhance this effect allowing both mom and dad to leave the eggs unattended while they hunt for lunch. The nest’s shape can hold anywhere from five to 15 eggs. Fifteen seems like a lot of eggs for a bird that’s about four inches long, yikes!
Dan Cooper, President of Cooper Ecological Monitoring, Inc. and local bird expert who wrote the book Important Bird Areas of California, vouched for the Bushtit’s reproductive capabilities.
“They do have exceptionally large broods, 10 plus young is not uncommon, said Cooper. “This is very different from most birds aside from waterfowl, quail, and a couple other groups. This adaptation probably allows them to thrive despite their tiny size and delicateness. They’re one of the most successful urban species, nesting in a huge variety of environments, within the most developed neighborhoods. In this way, they’re like pigeons, though 99.99% of the residents of Los Angeles have never seen or heard of them.”
Since you have a very good chance of seeing a Bushtit, if you do spot one while you’re with someone make sure you say, “There’s a Bushtit, a member of the Long-tailed Tits family.” Because seriously when are you going to have the chance again to say “tit” that many times in a sentence without offending somebody?"
Carolyn Kraft
oceanwildthings.org
Bushtit with nest building materials White Point Palos Verdes Penninsula 217
"...Nests are made from spider webs and a wide array of plant materials. This could partially explain the long assembly time because it must take forever to manipulate a spider web into doing your bidding without it sticking to you in the process. Once the outside is complete, the nest is lined with feathers and animal hair to make it warm and snuggly. The entrance and exit are a hole left at the top where the couple can fly in and out.
According to The Birds of North America Online database, this sturdy nest also makes the perfect incubator for eggs during the day and the lower half is sometimes placed strategically in the sun to enhance this effect allowing both mom and dad to leave the eggs unattended while they hunt for lunch. The nest’s shape can hold anywhere from five to 15 eggs. Fifteen seems like a lot of eggs for a bird that’s about four inches long, yikes!
Dan Cooper, President of Cooper Ecological Monitoring, Inc. and local bird expert who wrote the book Important Bird Areas of California, vouched for the Bushtit’s reproductive capabilities.
“They do have exceptionally large broods, 10 plus young is not uncommon, said Cooper. “This is very different from most birds aside from waterfowl, quail, and a couple other groups. This adaptation probably allows them to thrive despite their tiny size and delicateness. They’re one of the most successful urban species, nesting in a huge variety of environments, within the most developed neighborhoods. In this way, they’re like pigeons, though 99.99% of the residents of Los Angeles have never seen or heard of them.”
Since you have a very good chance of seeing a Bushtit, if you do spot one while you’re with someone make sure you say, “There’s a Bushtit, a member of the Long-tailed Tits family.” Because seriously when are you going to have the chance again to say “tit” that many times in a sentence without offending somebody?"
Carolyn Kraft
oceanwildthings.org