Guest post from Holly Garrod, ornithologist at the Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary in Orange County.

It's starting to feel like spring here at Starr Ranch! More birds have started singing, like Orange-crowned Warblers, Oak Titmice, Song Sparrow to name a few. I even got to see a Black Phoebe territorial display where two Black Phoebes battled each other to the ground!

This week's featured bird is … Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus), photo taken by Holly Garrod during February MoSI. Bushtits are small, fluffy grayish-brown little birds with long tails. You can tell males and females apart by their eye color: males have a dark brown iris and females have a creamy white iris. Bushtit calls are often high and wispy sounding, like a ring-ling-jingling noise. Bushtits are very social birds and hang out in flocks that range from 10 to 40 individuals. During the breeding season a Bushtit pair will build a large hanging nest. In this nest, Bushtits will have helper birds that aid in raising the young. Interestingly enough in Bushtits these helper birds are almost always males.

Here are other birds seen, heard and banded in Starr Ranch this week, bird banded are indicated with an asterisk:

1. Mallard

2. Turkey vulture

3. Northern Harrier

4. Cooper's Hawk

5. Sharp-shinned Hawk

6. Red-shouldered Hawk

7. Red-tailed Hawk

8. Band-tailed Pigeon

9. Mourning Dove

10. Great Horned Owl

11. Western Screech Owl

12. Barn Owl

13. Common Poorwill

14. Anna's Hummingbird

15. Allen's Hummingbird

16. Acorn Woodpecker*

17. Nuttall's Woodpecker

18. Northern Flicker

19. American Kestrel

20. Black Phoebe

21. Say's Phoebe

22. Cassin's Kingbird

23. Hutton's Vireo

24. Western Scrub Jay

25. American Crow

26. Common Raven

27. Oak Titmouse*

28. Bushtit*

29. White-breasted Nuthatch

30. Bewick's Wren

31. Cactus Wren

32. California Gnatcatcher

33. Ruby-crowned Kinglet*

34. Wrentit

35. Hermit Thrush*

36. American Robin

37. Varied Thrush

38. California Thrasher

39. Northern Mockingbird

40. European Starling

41. Phainopepla

42. Orange-crowned Warbler*

43. Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's subspecies)*

44. Spotted Towhee*

45. California Towhee*

46. Fox Sparrow (Thick-billed and Sooty subspeices)*

47. Song Sparrow*

48. Lincoln's Sparrow*

49. Golden-crowned Sparrow

50. Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon subspecies)*

51. Western Meadowlark

52. House Finch

53. Lesser Goldfinch