I was rather shocked in late March to discover an almost complete Bushtit nest on one of my regular neighborhood driving routes.  The nest resembles a sock hanging from a limb, so the eggs and incubating adult(s) are hidden from other birds that might disturb the nest.  My first thought was that it was left over from last year, but I reasoned that it was so obvious that there was no way I could have missed it.  A little observation revealed it was built in very short order for this year’s breeding season.  (The Bushtits do no reuse their nests.)

I watched over a multi-day period and although the exterior of the nest was apparently finished, the birds continued to pad the inside during the time of my observations.  I was concerned when we had a heavy rain a week or so ago that the nest might get water-soaked and fail, but though it has sagged rather significantly it is still holding up.

The Bushtits are very small birds, roughly the size of kinglets but with a longer tail.  Interestingly, the sexes of the birds can be told apart by their eye color.  The male has a dark eye while the female has a mustard-yellow ring around a dark center.  (Sorry, but although I have recently successfully completed cataract surgery, I’m not an anatomist and  can’t scientifically identify the parts of the eye… especially those of birds!)

So here are a few photos of the birds, in some cases bringing nesting materials back to the nest…