Late in the day there was a lot of noise coming from my neighbor’s cherry tree. This little bird was one of about a dozen or so that were flying around and chirping.
They appear to be a family of bushtits. They tend to flock together and follow each other from tree to tree, often flying in a straight line single file!
See the dark eye in the photo above? According to Birds of the Willamette Valley Region by Nehls, Aversa, and Opperman, this means that this is a male. Females actually have a light ring in their eye.
It is common for me to see other birds near a bushtit flock as though they follow each other around, which they probably do for some group protection. Above is a chickadee that was only a few feet away.
A lovely post about another new bird for me… thanks for sharing.
Beautiful post!
Great post and photos of this cute little bird.
Unfamiliar bird by name; I kept looking at the pix to see if I’ve seen it and just didn’t recognize it — the behavior sounds familiar as if I’ve seen it before…..
Your pictures are great!
Such tiny birds I find particularly sweet. I have a resident flock of yellow-rumped thornbills in my garden entertaining me with their antics and beautiful song.
Informative post!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.
Great detective work…thanks for the Bush-tit crash course!
That’s a beautiful little bird and it would be great to see a whole flock of them like that. Great photos.
What a cute little bird!
Despite the resident feral cats, I manage to have chickadees still hanging out in my back yard, but not sure if I’ve seen bushtits…..but now I’ll know them better and even how to tell apart the guys and gals, thanks!
NEVER seen this one before..amazing–great FIND