Front:
allanBroos.
TUFTED TITMOUSE
Wiya.
National Audubon Society
Back:
No. 47
Tufted Titmouse
The tufted titmouse is sometimes called "tom-
tit” or “Peter-bird.” The last name is derived
from its most common note, peter peter or peto
peto, which it repeats continuously as it flits from
tree to tree through the woods. It also has other
calls not unlike the notes of its relative, the chick-
adee. The tufted titmouse is just as much of an
acrobat as the above-named bird, but perhaps its
performances do not attract so much attention.
It is not quite so friendly and confiding as its
black-capped cousin, yet it is not at all a shy bird
and may be readily approached. Many of us asso-
ciate the titmouse with the crisp autumn days
when nuts are falling, at which time it goes troop-
ing through the woods with jays and nuthatches
and other feathered companions.
The titmouse feeds almost entirely on insects,
eating them during the winter in the egg or pupa
stage. As a general rule, it is more a frequenter
of woodlands than is the chickadee.
The nest is usually in the deserted holes of
woodpeckers or in natural hollows of stumps or
dead trees. It is made of moss, leaves, strips of
bark, feathers, etc. The eggs are five to eight,
creamy white and spotted with reddish-brown.
State Bird: West Virginia.
Scientific name: Baeolophus bicolor. Length: 6 inches.
Range: Eastern United States from Nebraska, llinois
and New Jersey, south to Florida and Texas.
No. 47 from set of 50 Winter Birds of Eastern North America.
Published by the National Audubon Society, 1006 Fifth Avenue,
New York 28, New York. Price per set, $1.00 post-paid.
