For the Birds: Bug-eating Dynamos

Bushtit eating bugs off of seedpod
Photo by Maggie Bond

By Christine Southwick

Which tiny, flock-flying, exclusively bug-eating bird lives in our area?

Bushtit is the answer.

Bushtits are tiny, weighing only 0.18-0.21 ounces (about 2 pennies) which makes them one of the smallest perching birds (passerines) in North America.

Found only in western North America, these tiny bundles of energy dart into shrubs, bushes, and open tree canopy. 

Bushtits keeping warm at night
Photo by Robert McIntosh

Bushtits eat those tiny scale insects (that like flowering currants and other plants) plus aphids and leafhoppers, even small spiders, often hanging upside-down to reach their prey - a bug-eating reason to protect these gregarious spritely birds by providing native bushes and shrubs without pesticides.

One brave little bird at a time flits across open space from a small tree to a nearby shrub, and calls for the others to follow, which they do one or two at a time, accompanied by flock-wide encouragement. 

(In the winter chickadees may forage with/near them –more eyes find more food.) 

This delightful spectacle of noisy bush-shrub hopping is the typical movement of a foraging flock of Bushtits.

Bushtit coming out of top of nest
Photo by Elaine Chuang

Their nests are a marvel, looking like a foot-long windsock hanging vertically from a tree fork or strong branch anywhere between 3 to 100 feet up. 

In summer they will sleep in their unusual hanging nest. This can include the parents, an adult helper or two, and their 4-10 nestlings. 

Each nest is made of lichen and held together by spider webbing lined with feathers.

Their tail is almost half the length of their body, and this proportion results in a high rate of body heat loss; in cold weather they must eat about 80% of their weight a day to maintain their core temperature, and they usually sleep together for warmth.

Bushtit on suet feeder. Note:right bottom bushtit
with white eye is a female.
Photo by Dow Lambert

Freezing weather kills the bugs they need, so offering them suet is vitally important. 

Providing suet protein during the winter will help birds in general, and especially these active little bundles of fluff. 

Once they find your suet, they will often come at the same time each day - meal planning at its best.

So, hang a suet feeder where you can see it, grab a cup of coffee or tea and watch as these gregarious ping pong-sized-balls of feathers cover your suet with their soft noisy chatter. 

They won’t stay long (they have other stops to make), but they will bring a smile to your face.