Good Morning Miss Sunshine
The American bushtit is a tiny, social songbird easily recognized by its small size, plump body with a large head, and a notably long tail. These birds have a widespread distribution across western North America, ranging from the highlands of Mexico through the Western United States to southern British Columbia, extending through the Great Basin, the lowlands and foothills of California, and further south into southern Mexico and Guatemala.
They typically inhabit mixed open woodlands, favoring areas with oak trees and a scrubby chaparral understory. They can also be found in gardens and parks with dense vegetation. Bushtits primarily feed on small insects and spiders, often foraging in lively, mixed-species flocks alongside chickadees and warblers. Their active nature is evident as they move swiftly through vegetation in constant flocks, communicating with soft "chip" and "twitter" calls. They are acrobatic feeders, frequently seen hanging upside down to glean insects and spiders from the undersides of leaves, much like chickadees.
A distinctive feature of the bushtit is its elaborate hanging nest, a sock-like pouch woven from soft materials such as grasses and spider webs. These nests can be quite long for the size of the bird, sometimes reaching up to a foot in length, with a small entrance hole near the top.
(Sony a1, 200-600 @ 600 mm, 1/1250 @ f/6.3, ISO 2000, edited to taste)
Good Morning Miss Sunshine
The American bushtit is a tiny, social songbird easily recognized by its small size, plump body with a large head, and a notably long tail. These birds have a widespread distribution across western North America, ranging from the highlands of Mexico through the Western United States to southern British Columbia, extending through the Great Basin, the lowlands and foothills of California, and further south into southern Mexico and Guatemala.
They typically inhabit mixed open woodlands, favoring areas with oak trees and a scrubby chaparral understory. They can also be found in gardens and parks with dense vegetation. Bushtits primarily feed on small insects and spiders, often foraging in lively, mixed-species flocks alongside chickadees and warblers. Their active nature is evident as they move swiftly through vegetation in constant flocks, communicating with soft "chip" and "twitter" calls. They are acrobatic feeders, frequently seen hanging upside down to glean insects and spiders from the undersides of leaves, much like chickadees.
A distinctive feature of the bushtit is its elaborate hanging nest, a sock-like pouch woven from soft materials such as grasses and spider webs. These nests can be quite long for the size of the bird, sometimes reaching up to a foot in length, with a small entrance hole near the top.
(Sony a1, 200-600 @ 600 mm, 1/1250 @ f/6.3, ISO 2000, edited to taste)