October 29, 2020 – It is late October and the unmistakable and lovely echoing song of the Tufted titmouse, a small gray songbird with large black eyes, is in the air. Four of the fine-looking little birds descend to the ground to search through the leaf litter for fallen seeds. After finding a large seed, the titmouse quickly flies up to a branch and holds the seed between its’ feet and hammers away on the food with its’ bill to break the seed into smaller, edible pieces The Tufted titmouse is a common year-round resident to the eastern forests of the United States, most often seen during the fall and winter months at backyard feeders, parks, and open brushy areas at the edges of wooded landscapes where fruits, seeds, and insects are available. Northern Illinois, and states east to the Atlantic, are at the northern edge of the little birds’ range, although surveys have shown that they have been expanding their range northward as far as southern Canada for sometime, possibly due to a warming climate and the fact that more people are feeding birds during the winter. With a gray crest, dark forehead, a stubby black bill, and rusty colored flanks with white underparts the little Tufted titmouse stands out against the dull shades of brown on the autumn landscape, much like its’ smaller cousin, the Chickadee, with its’ bright crisp colors. It’s a speedy little bird that can suddenly appear, sometimes in a banditry of three or four bold little titmice, where there is a good food source. Cautiously but quickly the titmouse hops from branch to branch and then to the ground, many times chasing other birds away, finding a large seed to either eat now or take away and cache for later. The Tufted titmouse is a joy to see and a treat to hear, somehow their beauty is enhanced when snow comes to the woods. Maybe it’s the soft illumination from the blanket of white under the stark winter sky or just bottled up nostalgia that seems ready to burst with each new encounter.
