Howdy, friends.  I hope you are all well.  Avoiding the news has really improved my mental health, but I do miss you all.  Going from hanging out all day, every day for the better part of eight years to not at all has been an adjustment, to say the least. I’m sure I’ll be back once I’ve established a healthier relationship with current events. 

This week’s bird is the tufted titmouse, suggested by our own Uvular.  Its name comes from Old English “tit mase,” meaning small bird.  “Mase” was eventually replaced by mouse, a word that unlike mase is currently in use and an appropriate name for a small gray critter with an opportunistic diet that likes to eat seeds.  The tufted titmouse has a large range, stretching from Florida and eastern Texas in the south up through Ontario and Quebec in Canada.  Our fluffy new friend has benefitted from the warming climate.  At the beginning of the 20th century the northern end of its range ended in New Jersey in the east and Iowa in the west.  Its not all bad news, though, other reasons why its range has expanded include increased use of bird feeders and the fact that there are now more mature forests further north, which are its preferred habitat.  That seems good.  It is a year-round resident of its range, and will breed with the black-crested titmouse where their ranges intersect in Texas.  

The tufted titmouse eats a very diverse diet.  In the summer, caterpillars form a large part of this, but it also includes (deep breath): “wasps, bees, sawfly larvae, beetles, true bugs, scale insects, and many others, including many insect eggs and pupae. [It] also eats some spiders, snails, [as well as] seeds, nuts, berries, and small fruits.”  It will cling to windowsills to get at wasp nests and hang upside down from branches to forage.  It will also grip seeds in its strong feet and whacking them with its bill.  As previously mentioned, it is a big fan of bird feeders.  It will use them to stock its cache of seeds for use as needed.  Titmouse caches are typically located close to the available feeder.  

The tufted titmouse is incapable of making its own hole to build a nest, so it relies on naturally occurring cavities in trees, cavities abandoned by other birds, particularly woodpeckers, or birdhouses.  They line these nests with soft materials, including hairs poached from living subjects.  This brings us to the latest in our occasional word of the week, this week’s being kleptotrichy, or stealing mammal hair to use in a nest.  This practice was only formally recognized by the scientific community in 2021, and research included watching youtube videos of birds doing this.  Studies have shown that this pilfered hair includes human hair, so the WPT recommends keeping a sharp eye out.  Tufted titmice have been seen including shed snake skin in their nests if it can be found.  Young will sometimes stay with their parents for their first year of life, helping to raise the next batch of young before departing.  

Tufted titmice regularly form flocks with other small birds such as chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers to forage, and because they are very vocal, are often lookouts for the flock.  These impromptu flocks are called troupes or banditries, which I think we can all agree is a pretty sweet name.  Keep it real out there, folks.  The best we can do is live to fight another day, and its important to remember that self-care is part of that.  Sometimes the best thing you can do is make sure you’re doing ok.  You’re the only you we’ve got.

Links: https://tinyurl.com/55b3nhdy, https://tinyurl.com/4z9hyjv4, Tufted Titmouse » HF&G, https://tinyurl.com/yrhhwrwe