Tufted Titmouse

Baeolophus bicolor · Tits & Chickadees

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Tufted Titmouse, head-on

Constitution Marsh, 17 October 2026

A Tufted Titmouse looking straight down the lens from a tangle of saplings at Constitution Marsh. Titmice live all year in the deciduous woods of the eastern United States, and in autumn they spend much of the day hiding seeds one at a time in bark crevices to come back to in winter.

They are newcomers this far north. A century ago the titmouse was a bird of the South and the Ohio Valley and rare in most of New York; it has spread north since, helped by bird feeders and milder winters, and reached much of New England only after the Second World War.

Tufted Titmice

Blue Ridge Mountains, 28 November 2025

A pair of Tufted Titmice working the same bare branches a few feet apart in the Blue Ridge in November. Titmice are birds of the eastern deciduous woods, resident all year, and they hold pair bonds and territories through the winter rather than only in the breeding season, which is why two together in November isn't unusual.

Grey above with a rusty wash under the wing and a crest that stays raised more often than not. They will pull hair from a sleeping dog, or a person, to line the nest.