A mouthful

Back in March, I mentioned that I had located a Bushtit nest in a neighbor's yard — see the post called "Nest building" on 19 March 2020.

The Bushtits have been actively foraging in our yard, so I went out to see if I could snap a few pictures of them bringing food to the nest.

Sure enough, both the male (dark eyes) and female (pale eyes) were arriving with bills overflowing with insects.  Here are a few examples:

 

 

 

 

A few fun facts about Bushtit nesting behavior: (1) Their eggs are tiny, only ~13.7 mm x 10 mm; (2) their average clutch size (number of eggs in the nest) is ~6 (range from ~4-10); (3) the incubation period is ~12-13 days; (4) and the time to fledging (when the young leave the nest) is ~18 days.

Bushtits are primarily foliage gleaners, snatching invertebrates off of leaves and branches.  They're known to feed their young lots of caterpillars, along with beetles, wasps, bugs, and spiders.  Good job, everyone!