Bushtit

When walking along the coast, we can hear soft, breath-like calls from Bushtits in the trees above. It’s hard to see these small gray birds, less than 10 centimeters long, in the thick summer leaves. Their long tails stand out, about half to three-quarters of their body length.

Bushtits make simple, quiet twittering calls. Their sounds are like high-pitched “tsee-tsee-tsee” noises. These calls don’t have a fixed pattern and are not really songs. They don’t sing complex melodies like some other birds do. These soft sounds help us know they’re there during walks, even when we can’t see them. Bushtits like to stay together in small groups of 10 to 30 birds. They’re very small, but if you see one, you’ll probably see several more nearby. These birds are always on the move. They often look for food on the undersides of branches and leaves.

These birds mainly eat small insects and seeds from trees. They don’t migrate, staying in the same area all year. Bushtits are the only birds in their family (Aegithalidae) that live in North America. This family is also known as long-tailed tits. All other birds in this family live in Europe and Asia. Scientists think the ancestors of North American Bushtits may have reached the New World across the Bering land bridge.

There are 10 subspecies of Bushtits in North America, identified mainly by feather characteristics. The subspecie found in British Columbia is called Psaltriparus minimus saturatus. These birds have brown crowns, which is typical for coastal populations of bushtits. Inland populations have gray crowns. Subspecies in the southern United States and Mexico have black face masks.