Friday Backyard Bird Blogging: Tufted Titmouse - Baeolophus bicolor

These are tufted titmice, Baeolophus bicolor (click the pic to enlarge). I photographed them a few weeks ago on my deck after a snow. I had never been aware of them until I began throwing out birdseed. They are pretty birds, but I had some difficulty getting the pics because they didn't stick around long and it was an overcast day. Here is more information on the tufted titmouse with a description and sounds from All About Birds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Key features of the Tufted Titmouse include a short tuft on the head, eyes are black and prominent in a pale gray face, a black square on forehead, gray crest, rust colored flanks, a whitish belly and chest, and a black bill.

I don't think there are any college or high school sports teams that use the tufted titmouse as a mascot, but Team Tufted Titmouse won the fish and fowl division at the Florence-Town Creek Wild Game Cook-Off in May 2003.

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark.