How to Identify a Tufted Titmouse Bird

The tufted titmouse bird is known as "Jack Frost's trumpeter" because it's one of the first to show up at feeders in late fall. A very sociable bird, it often hangs around feeders with chickadees, nuthatches and small woodpeckers. Its territory is quite broad and unless you've had your eyes closed when you go outside, you've probably seen a few tufted titmouse birds around your own house.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Look at photos of the tufted titmouse bird which is about 6 ¼ inches tall, with gray upper parts and pale gray under parts. Their heads have a gray cap and crest and their face is pale gray. The male and female have similar appearances, but the juvenile bird has duller feathers.
2. Note the tufted titmouse bird was previously only found as far north as Iowa, Ohio, southern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but has expanded northward into Canada and Maine. It breeds anywhere from eastern Nebraska, southern Michigan, and Maine south to Texas, the Gulf coast, and central Florida. It favors swampy or moist woodlands, and it is often found around shade trees in cities.
3. Check out the favorite foods of the tufted titmouse birds. They like insects, spiders, snails, various berries, acorns and seeds. They frequently forage with other types of birds.
4. Search your backyard for possible tufted titmouse bird nests. They like to build them in a hole in a tree or a bird box and they're made up of leaves, moss, hair, dried grasses, strips of bark and sometimes feathers. The female lays 4 to 8 little creamy white eggs with brown speckles, and incubation takes about 14 days. Both the female and the male raise the young who leave the nest after 15 to 18 days.
5. Learn more about the tufted titmouse bird who can be brave and, if it gets used to you, may eat right out of your hand.

Tips & Warnings

• The tufted titmouse bird's song is a mixture of the loud, whistle-like, "peter, peter, peter, peter" and a fussy-sounding "tsee-day-day-day."