We got in a twenty mile bike ride, got a beautiful view of Mount Shasta from the rim of Timbered Crater, and got a glimpse of a flock of bushtits. What a happy go lucky gang. At summers end, after the breeding season, these tiny mites of birds flit about in family groups and then larger groups of as many as seventy. They stream from bush to bush in a constant search for insects, gleaning bark for food, dangling upside down or sideways. The group of 15 or so we saw was moving through the native plums lisping and whispering to themselves in their light insistent way.
Bushtits are nondescript, with gray backs, brownish cheeks, pale underparts and longish tails.
Eyes of mature females have a pale cream colored iris, which distinguishes them from the dark eyed males and juveniles. When winter comes they often associate with kinglets, chickadees, and titmice in jolly flocks that move through conifers looking for a tasty insect morsel or a juicy spider. They eat a lot of bugs. They need to to maintain their body temperature in the cold of winter. Groups of bushtits roost huddled together in tight masses to decrease their surface area to volume ratio and thus save energy by conserving heat loss.