Hawks, eagles, falcons, and owls might get all the attention, but a tiny songbird is no less ferocious — and perhaps more efficient — at finding and devouring prey. Consider the Bushtit, one of North America’s smallest songbirds.
Who’s a Bushtit? A relatively common songbird of western North America. They’re bundles of energy. And from the perspective of a human, they’re bundles of adorable: fuzzy blueish-gray, with a tail about as long as their body, tiny bills, tiny sounds, a tiny head, and a permanently startled look on their face. They cuddle to keep warm in the winter, forming long, alternative chains of adorableness.
A Bushtit at scale(?)
But what is a Bushtit to a scale insect (family Coccidae)? Pure menace. The stoops of a Peregrine have nothing on the speed and efficiency which a Bushtit can gobble up helpless prey.
At least this is how it seemed to me, as I recently watched a single Bushtit (I so rarely see just one) attack scale insects on green ash trees along the High Line Canal in Greenwood Village / Centennial.
The Bushtit tolerated my presence as I snapped photos as she snapped insects. (How do we know she’s a she? The yellow eye.) The photos show her inspecting her prey and lunging at it. Occasionally, bits of detritus are visible on her bill.
A chickadee catches on…
Clever as they are, especially in watching other birds for signals of potential prey, a Black-capped Chickadee eventually realized that this Bushtit had found a veritable buffet of protein. The Bushtit flew off, and the chickadee took her place.
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