Bushtit behavior - Arapahoe

[Jared Del Rosso]

On Sunday (July 26), I was giving a little water to a few recently transplanted perennials. The sound of water attracted a flock of about a dozen or so Bushtits, who began sipping from drops of water on leaves and from small puddles around the base of plants.

After drinking, something fun and funny (to my eyes) began. The Bushtits began preening and, as they did, a few began interacting with each other. I didn't have binoculars or my camera, and my smartphone videos are hopelessly zoomed in through the foliage of chokecherries. (I'll try to post these later on my personal website.) But what I saw was a few Bushtits huddling close to each other, "jumping" on top of each other,  and seeming to make beak-to-beak contact and/or pass something from beak-to-beak. I wish I had clearer and better views. 

Birds of the World documents antagonistic behaviors between Bushtits that looks something like what I witnessed -- 

"Occasionally 2 individuals will grapple with feet, fall to ground, and peck at each other while still connected. Pecking directed toward head and base of skull. When this occurs, the birds are insensitive to their surroundings and are easy to approach. Fighting individuals vocalize using calls that resemble loud, harsh begging calls." 

I don't believe I heard loud, harsh, begging calls -- and most of the other Bushtits around the interacting ones largely remained relaxed and preening. It seemed playful, but that's a hard assessment to make as a human watching birds. And there's no info in Birds of the World on play.

A few days prior to this, I had another notable Bushtit encounter -- though this time with a nest that had been dislodged from Piñon Pines at a local shopping center. (These pines are the most reliable place for me to encounter Bushtit. They're also struggling this year. At least two look fully dead.) 

Photographing a Bushtit nest, even up close, seems a hopeless endeavor. They are marvels of engineering, but function seems to fully override form. To my eyes, they're unattractive masses of thready and gunky material. This one seemed to have a decent amount of human-made threads and fibers in them.

There have been other compelling moments, with other species, in my backyard: juvenile robins bathing in dog water dishes, magpies drinking from other dog dishes, Blue Jays coming onto my patio to dig through my tray of buffalograss sprouts, etc. The young birds are especially goofy, and the drought seems to be pushing birds to take water wherever they can find it.

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO