faerye , So last Friday when I went #birding on #SauvieIsland, I spotted a bushtit nest! I didn’t know that bushtits made hanging pouches, but I was sure if I was patient, I would get a look at whatever wee bird engineers were messing with it! Sure enough, I did: the female bushtit is still seen through branches, like the nest, but the male did some poses for me 😊
#BackOnMyBushtit #BirdPhotography #Oregon
The male bushtit in profile, looking more pensive. In profile you can see the narrow, slightly curved shape of the small insect-grabbing bill, and more of the shape of the bird. There’s still no neck — it’s a very orbicular little bird — but it does have a proportionally quite long tail which adds to its character and charm!
Seen through the branches and leaves of the bush, a long hanging-pouch style nest. It looks to be made primarily out of moss, and if I did not swear to you I saw birds interacting with it, you might think it was made for a faerie terrarium by a rather twee Etsy seller! It’s pendulous and larger at the bottom, like a knit Christmas stocking with a chocolate orange in it.
The female bushtit, glimpsed in heroic profile and somewhat obscured by twigs. Her pale eye is trained on the future, out there…bushtit chicks…bushtit domination! Her tiny sharp bill is upraised in firm determination. If anything, she is even more spherical than her mate, having puffed up her soft mouse-colored feathers quite prodigiously.