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Tufted Titmouse

A Tufted Titmouse sits on top of a wooden, spear-shaped wooden pole. Blurred trees can be seein in the background. The bird is gray, with a crest on its head, and a white-ish belly. It is looking at something below it.

The Tufted Titmouse is a really cute bird. With their pretty "peter peter peter" song, soft gray feathers,  and a tiny pompadour, something about them just seems happy. This one was visiting a bird feeder, which the Missouri Department of Conservation says they like to do.[1] Sometimes they even stash seeds food from feeders away for the winter, one seed at a time.[2]

Winter is also when the Tufted Titmouse gathers friends. In the winter, some birds form multi-species flocks, and they often do so around loud, non-flashy birds.[1] The Tufted Titmouse's clear song (have a listen on their Audubon page)[3] and gray coloring help them meet this description. 

However, it hardly seems fair to stop the description at loud and non-flashy.

Let's add resourceful to the list. The Tufted Titmouse nests in holes that they can't dig out themselves.[1] So instead, they use holes already formed in trees, like those carved by woodpeckers. They start building their nest with grass and moss, and soften it up with material such as hair.[3] Sometimes they'll even add snake skin to the nest.[4]

Resourcefulness, however, can be taken too far. According to Audubon, sometimes the Tufted Titmouse plucks hair off of live animals for their nests and can even do this to people![3]

So if you ever see that cute, resourceful songbird studying your hair like it's picking out its next piece of furniture...watch out!

A Tufted Titmouse sits on a brown tube bird feeder. Green blurred trees can be seen in the background.

The Details: 

Common Name: Tufted Titmouse
Scientific Name: Baeolophus bicolor
Family: Paridae
Seen: Visiting a bird feeder
Month: September
Range: The Tufted Titmous can be found in most of the Southeastern and Northeastern parts of the United States year round, excluding the southernmost tip of Florida and the northernmost parts of Maine and New Hampshire.[5] They can also be found though areas of the Midwest and Southwest, through parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Take a look at this range map on the Cornell Lab's website to see if they can be found where you are.

Learn More About the Tufted Titmouse:

  1. Missouri Department of Conservation. (n.d.). Tufted Titmouse.
  2. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (n.d.). Tufted Titmouse: Overview. All About Birds.
  3. Audubon. (n.d.). Tufted Titmouse. [Note: The website says the text was adapted from Lives of North American Birds by Kenn Kaufman© 1996]
  4. Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. (n.d.). Time to nest.
  5. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (n.d.). Tufted Titmouse: Range map. All About Birds.

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