Bushtit
By: Jerry Poindexter
Bushtit
The bushtit, Psaltriparus minimus, is a very small bird about the size of a kinglet, measuring between 3½ and 4½ inches in length and having a large head and long tail. This tiny bird, one of North America’s smallest, varies in color based on geography. Bushtits in the Pacific region have a different plumage, with a brown crown and browner overall coloring, than bushtits in the interior, which are grayer overall with a gray crown. The measured drawing and painting notes are taken from various study skins at the Museum of Natural History’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona, Tucson.