#juniper titmouse

Juniper Titmouse fledgling!!!!!! I happened to look over and see them in the tree and started recording the live stream when I realized the baby was at the feeder.

Dying from the cuteness!

Black-Crested Titmouse by Dan Pancamo, CC BY-SA 2.0

Etymology: Little Crest

First Described By: Cabanis, 1850

Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoromorpha, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostaylia, Ornithothoraces, Euornithes, Ornithuromorpha, Ornithurae, Neornithes, Neognathae, Neoaves, Inopinaves, Telluraves, Australaves, Eufalconimorphae, Psittacopasserae, Passeriformes, Eupasseres, Passeri, Euoscines, Passerides, Core Passerides, Sylviida, Paroidea, Paridae

Referred Species: B. wollweberi (Bridled Titmouse), B. inornatus (Oak Titmouse), B. ridgwayi (Juniper Titmouse), B. bicolor (Tufted Titmouse), B. atricstatus (Black-Crested Titmouse)

Status: Extant, Least Concern

Time and Place: Within the last 10,000 years, in the Holocene of the Quaternary 

The titmice are known from North America, though it rarely gets as far north as Canada 

Physical Description: Titmice are small, fairly dully colored but distinctively patterned birds, ranging between 11.5 and 16 centimeters in length. They are typically dark grey on top, with white and grey bellies, with some yellowish patches underneath their wings. They have fairly long, thin tails, and round bodies. Their heads are also dull colored, though many of them have distinctive black, brown, or white patterning, though others are more uniform. They have small, triangular beaks, and most noticeable of all - large crests on the tops of their heads! The crests are triangular in shape, and they are what the birds get their names from. The sexes tend to be alike across the genus, and juveniles are only a little duller than the adults. 

Juniper Titmouse by Tony Randell, CC BY-SA 2.0 

Diet: The Titmice tend to feed upon small invertebrates and larvae, using their small pointy beaks to pull out grubs and other food from hard to reach places. They do also feed upon small bits of plants such as leaf buds, acorns, and fruit.

Oak Titmouse by Linda Tanner, CC BY 2.0 

Behavior: Titmice tend to forage alone or in breeding pairs, though they do congregate in slightly larger groups during the colder months of the year, when new families will often go foraging together. Only a few species can be found regularly in mixed-species foraging flocks; usually, they tend to just stick to their own species of titmouse and no other birds. They tend to do most of their foraging throughout the trees - especially the canopy during the winter - as well as in the undergrowth and on the ground, where it will dig around for food around the branches and foliage. Some species tend to forage more on the ground than others. They are quite vocal while foraging, making sure to keep any group together - so especially so during winter. Calls for Titmice tend to range between soft tup-tup-tup and churring calls, as well as more “tsit-tsit-tsit” and other variations on that theme. Each species makes different songs, but they tend to sound like “pli-pli-pli” and other similar themes, with whistled and slurred rapid calls. All sexes have been shown to sing. Many individual males have a wide variety of song types! 

Tufted Titmouse by Jocelyn Anderson, CC BY 2.0 

None of these birds really migrate long distances, but they do move back and forth over short distances based on seasonal differences and food availability. They begin the breeding season usually at the end of winter or early spring, though some species will start a little bit later. They tend to be strictly monogamous, and pair-bond for life, though they’ll have helpers (often former children) aid in the feeding of young at some nests. Interestingly enough, Tufted Titmice will sometimes have small flocks of unrelated individuals making nests in an area, with a dominant pair and a second pair nearby with the dominant pair breeding and laying first. They are also very territorial over their breeding location and general area of the nest. The females will do the bulk of the nest construction, making them out of moss, grass, lichens, leaves, bark, hair, feathers, and other materials to form a cup placed in a hole or cavity in a tree, a few to many meters above the ground - usually, these are old woodpecker holes. They will lay between five and nine eggs which are mainly incubated by the female, while the males will bring food to her and eventually the chicks. The eggs are incubated for around two weeks, when both parents start to feed the chicks as they stay in the nests. The young then stick around for about a month, and then stay near the family and nest for another month after that, though Tufted Titmice will stay for up to two more months and may even help with a second brood of birds. Sometimes the families will stick together, especially for wintertime foraging - while others will begin defending their own practice territories. The longest these birds have been recorded living in the wild is up to fourteen years. 

Brindled Titmouse by Dominic Sherony, CC BY-SA 2.0 

Ecosystem: Titmice stick to mature temperate forests, usually of multiple types of trees. They tend to enjoy more water-associated areas including river valleys, streams, and wooded swamps. They can also be found on the edge of farmland. Some will also be found in lowland dry forest and warm-climate evergreen forests. Desert species are also found in brush and scrub habitats. 

Oak Titmouse by Alan Vernon, CC BY 2.0 

Other: None of the titmice are currently threatened with extinction, though some (such as the Oak Titmouse) have much more restricted ranges than others (like the Tufted Titmouse). This affects their population health, but they all seem to be doing okay. And, of course, they can be more common in some regions than in others. The titmice are in fact closely related to other species of tit, as well as the chickadees. These particular members of this family are called titmice primarily due to their small size. 

Tufted TItmouse by Andy E. Mcee, CC BY-SA 2.0 

Species Differences: The different titmice live in a variety of habitats and locations, and differ from each other on general appearance as well. Brindled Titmice are found mainly in Western Mexico, and are the most distinctive species - with black and white stripes across its face, and the black portion of the large crest in the back, with a gray patch in the front. It also has a brown back and yellow-whitish front. It is the smallest species, and lives in dry evergreen forests. Oak Titmice are found in California and Baja California - they are a vibrant, chestnut brown, with pale yellow bellies. Their faces are brown and white spotted, and they have medium-sized crests. It is a large species, living in lowland evergreen woodlands. Juniper Titmice are very similar to Oak, but they are duller brown and with smaller crests. They are also a large species and found in the Southwestern United States, usually in scrub and scrub woodland. Tufted Titmice live all over the eastern and Central United States, and is the only species that gets into Canada. They have a small black patch in the front of their crest, which is large. They are grey all over their back, and white-yellowish on their bellies. They are mid-sized Titmice, and live in temperate woodlands. Finally, Black Titmice are found in lowland dry forest and scrub woodland in Texas, Oklahoma, and Northeastern Mexico. They are mid-sized, and grey all over the top with yellow-white on the belly, with an entirely black front to its crest - very similar to the Tufted Titmouse, but with a different range and crest.

~ By Meig Dickson

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