Bird Bits

Tufted Titmice

By Dan Mooney

A Tufted Titmouse pauses just long enough to show its crest, large dark eye and peach-colored flank.

For bird banders, Tufted Titmice and their cousins, Carolina Chickadees, can be a real pain in the fingers. Somehow, they find the most tender spots and hammer at them incessantly while in the hand. I prefer the vise-like grip of a cardinal’s bill to that constant tapping.

Tufted Titmice have a pointed crest reminiscent of a cardinal’s, but their colors are far more subdued. They are gray above and white underneath, with peach-colored flanks and a small black patch above the bill. Their beady black eyes look especially large against the pale face. Males and females have nearly identical plumage.

If you keep your feeder filled with black oil sunflower seeds, titmice in the neighborhood will probably visit regularly. A bird generally takes one seed and flies to a nearby perch, where it holds the seed beneath its feet and hammers it open. Titmice also hide shelled seeds for later, tucking them into bark, beneath objects or into other small hiding places.

Tufted Titmouse perched beside a backyard feeder and looking toward the camera — A Tufted Titmouse visits a backyard feeder, where black oil sunflower seeds are a favorite offering.

Seeds are only part of the menu. Titmice eat small fruits such as hackberries, black cherries and mulberries, along with acorns and other nuts. Insects and spiders make up much of their warm-weather diet, and insects provide the protein that parents carry to their growing nestlings.

Tufted Titmice are cavity nesters, but they cannot excavate their own nest holes. Instead, they use natural cavities created by decay or broken limbs, old woodpecker holes and sometimes nest boxes. The female builds a cup of leaves, moss, grass and bark, then lines it with soft material such as fur, hair, wool or cotton. Titmice have even been observed plucking hair directly from living mammals for their nests.

A typical clutch contains five or six eggs, although the recorded range is three to nine. The female incubates the eggs for about 12 to 14 days. The young remain in the nest for another 15 to 16 days, and their parents continue feeding them for several weeks after they fledge.

Tufted Titmice are pleasant, active, attractive and entertaining little birds—as long as you do not try to hold one.

More bird stories and photographs are available throughout Birdnerds.com.