Gardening in north Orange County, California

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Bushtit's nest


We noticed this bird's nest in the honeysuckle growing over a chain-link fence in our garden this afternoon.  The nest is about 8 in. long (20cm), and about the size of a grapefruit or large apple at the bottom.  You can clearly see the opening near the top of the nest in the photo above and the next one.

There is an old Bearss lime tree with low-hanging branches above, but the nest is actually in the tangle of honeysuckle, a little less than five feet off the ground.  It is constructed of twigs and leaves and various garden rubbish, including bits of newspaper that we put down as mulch a few months ago, and possibly a piece of pink dryer lint! It is probably a bushtit's nest, but we haven't seen any occupants yet.


The photos are all full-size --




This is the back of the nest, which is on the other side of the chain-link fence.