News & Events
Search for Local Events!
Staff & Bird Store Videos
Meet our franchisees and staff here!
Exclusive Bird Supplies
Bird Species: B
Pairs Equal Full House
A nest competitor to bluebirds is the tree swallow. While this is a species that many people would like to accommodate, most don't want them nesting at the expense of bluebirds. There is a strategy that allows for both. Because of the competitive nature of birds, most species, including bluebirds and swallows, will not tolerate another pair of their own species nesting close by. But they will allow unrelated species to nest fairly close. Therefore, consider placing nest boxes in pairs -- about 30 feet apart -- rather than singly.
Even if swallows take over some bluebird houses, one nest box of each pair still should be available for bluebirds. If you live in the west, the same strategy applies, but you also contend with violet-green swallows. Encouraging swallows and bluebirds to nest in close proximity has another advantage. Tree swallows are more aggressive than bluebirds. They will drive egg-damaging house wrens from the area, which is a benefit to both swallows and nearby bluebirds. To help with the identification of nest box occupants: bluebirds line their nests with fine grass, swallows with feathers and wrens with small twigs.
Brown Creeper
Where They Live: Brown creepers can be found in wooded areas across much of the United States and southern Canada, searching among tree trunks for food. Decaying trees located in wooded swampland provide ideal foraging and nesting locations. They use cavities formed by loosened wedges of tree bark as a location for their nests. These are cup-like structures of moss, bark strips and twigs 5- to 15-feet off the ground. Creepers most often are discovered feeding all alone during spring and summer. In winter, they join flocks of nuthatches and titmice as they search together for food.
What They Eat: Brown creepers eat all types and stages of bark insects, as well as the various seeds of arboreal plants. Creepers seem very methodical in their foraging pattern, typically darting upward, checking nooks and crannies as they spiral up tree trunks in search of larvae and seeds. They then flit to the base of a neighboring tree and repeat the process.
Appearance: The creepers' diminutive size and camouflaged plumage make them difficult to see. They have been described as the most frequently overlooked bird species. When alarmed, they tend to hold perfectly still so as to blend into their surroundings. A brown creeper clinging motionless to a tree trunk looks like...a tree trunk! Creepers have brown-streaked backs and white bellies. Their long, down-curved bills are perfect tools for probing the bark of trees. Long and stiff tail feathers provide a handy brace for clinging to vertical surfaces.
Voice: The best clue to the presence of creepers along a woodland trail may be its distinctive song. It is comprised of a series of high, thin whistles, "see tee wee tu wee." Their call note is a high, thin "seee."
Bushtit
Where They Live: The Pacific coast of North America, from southern British Columbia to Baja California, is home to a sprightly songbird called the bushtit. It is a permanent resident throughout the deserts and mountains of this region, preferring deciduous and coniferous forests, stream sides, oak woodlands and chaparral. If you are in bushtit territory, look for their gourd-shaped, woven pocket-like nests hanging from a tree branch. Building these examples of elaborate avian architecture requires the efforts of both mates for many days.
What They Eat: The preferred food of bushtits includes insects, spiders, seeds and fruits. They may occasionally visit backyard feeders for commercially packaged seed. More obvious than their choice of food is the bushtit's manner of foraging. They hunt together in active, noisy flocks of up to thirty individuals. These little acrobats hop, flit and swing through bushes and shrubs as they feed. They also will join foraging flocks of chickadees, titmice and kinglets.
Appearance: Bushtits are only three to three-and-a-half inches in length, smaller than their close relatives, chickadees and titmice. They are gray-brown in color with long tails and small bills. The upper mandible of the bill is sharply curved. Females have light, cream-colored eyes, while males are easily distinguished by their dark eyes. There is some plumage variation among bushtits depending on where in the West you see them. Along the coast they have a light brown cap, but in the interior the cap is gray and the birds' cheeks are brown. In the southwest portion of their range, male bushtits have black cheeks.
Voice: The diminutive size and vocal calls of the bushtit are described aptly in their scientific name -- Psaltiparus minimus. The genus, or first name, is Latin meaning "player of lute or zither." The species, or second name, is Latin for "least." The song of the bushtit is a high trill that rarely is heard. However, the high pitched twittering calls of foraging birds are heard easily and recognized. If they weren't all calling at once, a bushtit call would sound like a thin, "tsip, tsip."