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No
ventriloquist’s dummy! Tufted Titmice have a remarkable alarm call which
is a loud scold that fades off as if the bird is moving into the
distance. This may fool predators into chasing the phantom bird call
while the titmouse stays safely hidden.
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The Tufted Titmouse seeks insects and cocoons among dead
leaves, whether still attached to a tree, fallen to the ground, or even
built into squirrels’ nests.
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It eats with its feet! Tufted Titmice are one of a few
perching birds that can use their feet to hold seeds while they break
them open.
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During the winter the Tufted Titmouse forages together
with Chickadees, Nuthatches, Woodpeckers and Brown Creepers.
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The Tufted Titmouse is apparently totally dominant over
the Black-capped Chickadees within their territory. Chickadee survival
rates often plummet after Titmice expand into their territory for the
first time.
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The Tufted Titmouse has been expanding its range
northward since the 1940’s and is now found almost to the Canadian
border across most of its range. Speculation for the expansion includes
warming winter temperatures and the increase in mature woodland habitat.
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Tufted Titmouse have been know to wander northward in
the fall and winter, even into southern Canada.
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No empty nesters here! Young Tufted Titmice often remain
with their parents throughout their first winter.
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On rare occasions, a young Tufted Titmouse will stay
with its parents into the nesting season and help its parents raise the
next brood.
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Talk about being camouflaged! A wintering Tufted
Titmouse perched among the gray branches and brown dead leaves of an
American Beech tree seems to disappear completely!
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The Tufted Titmouse and the Black-crested Titmouse were
re-classified into just one species in 1983. The Black-crested Titmouse
frequents mesquite shrub habitat and the Tufted Titmouse favors
broadleaf hardwood forests.
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Tufted Titmice always chose the largest sunflower seeds
available to them.
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Tufted Titmice typically select one seed from a feeder
at a time. They shell it and hide the kernel within 130 feet of the
feeder from which they obtained it.
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Tufted titmice typically cache seeds under loose bark
(46% of cases), but they also use furrows, cracks, broken and rotted
areas of trees, as well as on the ground.
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Tufted Titmouse will regularly eat snow when water for
drinking is not available.
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Tufted Titmice often give a high-pitched alarm call in
response to a hawk flying overhead.
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Tufted Titmice do not excavate their own nesting cavity.
Instead they use natural holes in trees and abandoned cavities excavated
by Downy, Hairy, Red-bellied, Red-headed, and Pileated woodpeckers, and
by the Northern Flicker. They will also use artificial nesting boxes.
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The Bridled Titmouse, unlike the other titmice species,
does not hide seeds for future use. The part of the brain used to store
memories of hiding places is small in this species compared with other
species that frequently hide food.
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The Bridled Titmouse is the only species of its family
in North America that appears to have regular helpers, in addition to
its mate, when nesting.
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The Oak Titmouse mates for life, and together they
defend a territory throughout the year.
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The incubating female of the Juniper Titmouse sits very
tight on her nest and will hiss like a snake if disturbed.
