Bushtits Eating Poison Oak Berries

About a week ago, I posted about poison oak berries being an important food source for birds because the hardy berries will linger on the plant into the winter months. Up to that point, I reported that I had only seen chickadees eating the berries.

On Saturday, I was watching a flock of bushtits performing their acrobatic routine through the landscape. The next thing I know, they had descended on a patch of poison oak and started eating the berries. I was delighted to have observed another bird eating them.

It was fun to watch them cling to the plant in all sorts of ways as they ate the berries.