Tufted Titmouse

The 6-inch tufted titmouse is a mouse like bird with a gray crest, buff-colored flanks, and beady black eyes. Male and female look alike. It lives in backyards and gardens; also forests, swamps, and orchards. Its natural food is a variety of insects, their eggs, and larvae, as well as seeds and fruit found in the woods. With its sharp, black bill, the Tufted Titmouse opens moth cocoons for the larva inside. Like chickadees, the tufted titmouse nests inside a tree cavity, often taking over one hollowed out by a woodpecker. The 5 or 6 speckled and creamy eggs are incubated for 13 or 14 days by the female; the male calls her out of the cavity to feed her. The young leave the nest 17 or 18 days after hatching. You can best attract them to your garden by putting out sunflower seeds, and they relish suet on cold days. Occasionally they’ll use a birdhouse if you building it 4 by 4 by 10 inches high with a 1 1/4-inch entrance hole. Place the birdhouse 6 to 15 feet above the ground. They also like oak trees.

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