Wrentit
This week’s bird is the Wrentit (Chamaea fasciata), a bird found along the Pacific coast. I was fortunate to encounter it a few times, photographing it twice, during the four plus years we lived in California.
The Wrentit is neither a wren nor a tit, but is instead a member of the family of birds commonly referred to as babblers and parrotbills. In fact, it is the only species of the family Sylviidae (consisting of 68 species in 16 genera) found in North America. Its range is restricted to the Pacific Coast, extending from the Columbia River south to Baja California, west of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains.
What it looks like
The Wrentit is a small, wrenlike bird. Its plumage varies from uniform dull olive, olive-brown, dark ruddy brown to pale brown upperparts, contrasting with paler olive, olive-brown, rufous-brown, or reddish- to pinkish-brown underparts. Its throat and breast also may be vaguely streaked. It has short, rounded wings, long legs, and a distinctive long tail typically held at an upright angle from its body. Its bill is short and slightly curved. Its face is highlighted by distinctive eyes, with a dark brown, gray, or maroon outer iris (depending on age) contrasting with light inner iris. Sexes have similar plumages, with males slightly larger and with slightly longer wings.
Behavior
Wrentits form tight monogamous bonds, typically mating for life. They are highly sedentary – some biologists believe they are the most sedentary of all bird species. Breeding pair will remain in the same territory year around, with documented cases of their living up to 12 years in the same area. Their offspring do not disperse very far, typically setting up their own territories about a quarter mile from where they hatched.
Wrentits can be found in a variety of habitats with adequate shrub cover, including riparian forests and scrub, second-growth and old-growth forests, valley oak woodlands, as well as suburban yards and urban parks. Both sexes defend their territory with distinctive songs, aptly called “the voice of the chaparral.” Males share incubation duties, and the pair maintains vocal contact at all times. The pair preen one another, and they roost together by huddling closely and forming what appears to be a contiguous ball of feathers.
What they eat
The Wrentit feeds in bushes and scrub by picking insects, larva, and spiders from the bark of trunks and twigs. It also gleans fruit and seeds from tips of twigs. Occasionally, it hovers briefly over flowers or fly-catches small butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera). It rarely forages on the ground.
Similarly named species
Bushtit
Although the diminutive Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) has a similar name and can be found in similar places, it is neither closely related to nor easily confused with the Wrentit. The Bushtit is the only New World representative of the 11 species in the family of long-tailed tits known as Aegithalidae. With a range covering western parts of North America through the Central America highlands, the Bushtit is a very small, drab-gray bird with a long tail and a social nature. It is most often seen in flocks of 3 to 40 individuals, bouncing around in bushes and scrublands. My brother-in-law who lives in Mendocino, CA, refers to them as the “ping pong ball” bird.
That’s it for this week. Next week’s bird is the Brown Pelican.
If you missed it, click here to read about the Chinese Hwamei.