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Bushtits

The Aegithalidae family of birds, commonly called bushtits or long-tailed tits, consists of 13 species of small perching birds divided into 3 genera. All but one of the species is native to Eurasia, stretching from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean and from Great Britain to Japan. The one exception is the American bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) which is found in Western North America from Canada to Mexico. The American bushtit is shown below.

Bushtits are more commonly called long-tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus) in Great Britain. They are called that because their tails are usually as long or longer than their bodies. That is actually true of all adult bushtits. That and the shape of the tail has led to them sometimes being called flying lollipops. 

The "tit" part of the name comes from an Old Islandic word meaning something small, so bushtit means a small bird found in bushes. Bushtit bodies are generally only 3½ to 4½ inches long including the tail, making them very small indeed. Their favorite foods are small insects; mostly aphids, scale insects, caterpillars, beetles, leafhoppers, and small spiders that they find in bushes and trees. They occasionally eat berries, too. Bushtits tend to congregate and forage in flocks comprised of from 10 to 40 birds depending on the species and sometimes geographic location.

Bushtit nests are made from mosses, lichens, grass, leaves, and small twigs bound together with spider silk. The interiors are lined with soft insulating material like feathers, fur, and downy plant material.

Nests up to a foot long are built by a monogamous pair, but roughly 38% of the time, they have from 1 to 4 adult male "helpers." These helpers not only help build the nests, but they also live and sleep in the nests, assist with incubation, and share in the feeding of nestlings.

Nest building begins around late February or March. The peak breeding season runs from March to June. Breeding bushtit pairs lay one or two clutches of 4 to 10 eggs per breeding season. Eggs in a clutch are laid about one per day. Incubation doesn't start until the female has laid all of the eggs in the clutch, assuring that all of the eggs hatch at about the same time. Eggs hatch 11 to 13 days after incubation begins. Hatchlings become fledglings--old enough to leave nests--around 18 days later.

Bushtits become mature adults in about a year. The average life span of bushtits is a few years because of predation and harsh weather. The longest recorded lifespan of a banded bird in the wild is nine years and one month.

Japanese Snow Fairy

Long-tailed tits are found in nearly all of Eurasia. A subspecies of long-tailed tits found only in Hokkaido, Japan's northern-most main island, and some surrounding smaller islands is known to the Japanese as shima-enaga. It's fanciful English name is Japanese snow fairy (Aegithalos caudatus japonicus).

From the front, shima-enaga appear to be all white except for its eyes, beak, and feet. Another view makes it clear that its feathers aren't all white.

A side view shows that the shima-enaga's body feathers are nearly all white, but its wings and tail feathers are dark-colored.

Baby shima-enaga have tiny dark streaks near their eyes that resemble eyebrows. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a photo showing them. By the time they become adults, the "eyebrows" have turned white, too. 

Shima-enaga don't migrate. They stay in Hokkaido all year, including through the winter. Bird watchers do migrate, however--to Hokkaido--especially in winter, in hopes of spotting the beautiful birds. To Japanese culture, shima-enaga symbolize winter beauty, purity, and innocent joy.

Shima-enaga have two strategies for keeping warm during Hokkaido's harsh, cold winters. The first is to puff up their feathers to trap air for increased insulation. This gives them the appearance of snowballs with wings.

The other way is by groups of shima-enaga huddling together.

Most of what was said about bushtits above applies to shima-enaga, too. One difference is that shima-enaga begin nest building and breeding in the spring instead of the winter. They breed only once a year.