I mentioned earlier that Gary Shugart had seen 20 Bushtits at the Potholes
Reservoir on 20 October, and my comments on Bewick's Wrens started a thread
on that species. Wayne Weber pointed out that the origin of the eastern
WA//eastern OR/ID populations might be traced by determining the subspecies.
This is what museum collectors have done throughout the history of
ornithology, but such activities are much decreased nowadays.

This is indeed the case with the Bushtits, as those seen in Grant County
were "Lead-colored" Bushtits, Psaltriparus minimus plumbeus, the Great Basin
subspecies that is common from central Oregon south but that has been
recorded in Washington only one time previously, a bird collected in Yakima
in the 1950s. The other Bushtits that occur in Yakima (and probably the
ones near Cle Elum) are of the westside subspecies.

Interior Bushtits can be recognized in the field - they are gray-headed and
pale-bellied (almost white), as compared with the brown-headed and
brown-bellied western birds.

Dennis Paulson
--
Netta Smith and Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115