BIRD TALK: MT. FORTUNA’S WRENTIT

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By Greg Dunne

January 24, 2014 (Mission Trails) -- Instead of being  glued to the sofa and TV watching championship football games to see who will be going to the Super Bowl, I got a big pay-off with a photo of a cute little bird on Sunday.  I passed a few hikers along the way to the top of Mt. Fortuna out at Mission Trails Regional Park on Sunday afternoon.  How can you beat the great weather we have for hiking here in the East County, especially considering the hard winter the East Coast is getting right now?

The big pay-off for me was my first photo of this warm and fuzzy Wrentit. 

It is not the easiest creature to be snapped by the camera. Wrentits like to stay in the dense scrub and they are more often heard than seen.  I find that I am not always willing to wait for my birding subjects to appear from the chaparral thicket; after all, I have peaks of mountaintops to climb.  Last Sunday was different – I was not familiar with the chatter coming from an area of chaparral and had to investigate.

 After some time of patiently waiting with my camera at the ready he appeared for a brief second or two and I got off a rapid dozen or so shots.  I was not very sure what kind of bird that I had captured with my camera, (although I had some ideas of what it definitely was not) I like to wait until I get home to review the details.  I pulled up the photos on my computer and was pleasantly surprised it was a Wrentit!  Many others birders have photos of this little guy, but it was my first photo of a Wrentit! I was thrilled.

 The Wrentits is a fascinating bird. In the scientific classification of birds it stands as one in its own Genus. It's common name and its external resemblance is close in looks to Wren's and Bushtits but is not closely related to either one. The bird’s face looks just like a Bushtit face.  Bushtits hang out in large groups and mating pairs can stay together for several years. Wrentits  mate for life and can be together for 12 years. Wrentits are non-migratory birds and may be the most sedentary bird species in North America. They are primarily California birds but also are found along the Organ’s coast.  Insects, spiders, seeds, fruits are its wide variety of food.

 I have to admit that when I got home on Sunday from my hike in MTRP I enjoyed the second game of the day between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers. However, the highlight of my day was the Wrentit coming out of the bush to give my camera a photo! We will see how many hikers are out at MTRP on Super Bowl Sunday.  Keep on birding!


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