Oak Titmouse

Baeolophus inornatus

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family PARIDAE

Menu

1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

Formerly lumped with the Juniper Titmouse as the species known appropriately as Plain Titmouse, the Oak Titmouse is small drab bird whose small head tuft is nearly its only field mark.

Cool Facts

• The Oak Titmouse sleeps in cavities or in dense foliage. When roosting in foliage, the titmouse chooses a twig surrounded by dense foliage or an accumulation of dead pine needles, simulating a roost in a cavity.

• The Oak Titmouse mates for life, and pairs defend year-round territories. Most titmice find a mate in their first fall. Those that do not are excluded from territories and must live in marginal habitat until they find a vacancy.

• The Oak Titmouse, unlike other members of the family, does not form flocks in winter.

Description

• Weight: 10-21 g (0.35-0.74 ounces)

• Small gray bird with small tuft on head.

• Brownish-gray on back.
• Lighter gray on underparts.
• Dark eye.
• Small dark bill.
• Relatively long tail.

Sex Differences

Sexes alike.

Immature

Juvenile similar to adult, but feathers are softer and more loosely textured.

Similar Species

• Nearly identical to Juniper Titmouse. Slightly larger; more brown on back. Ranges overlap only in small area in California.
• Tufted Titmouse, which does not overlap in range, has whiter belly, rusty flanks, and black on the forehead.

Sound

Song a series of repeated whistled notes, with first syllable higher in pitch than the following one. Calls a scratchy "tsicka-dee-dee."

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Resident from southern Oregon through California west of the Sierras to Baja California.

Habitat

Warm, dry oak and oak-pine woodlands at low to mid-elevations.

Food

Seeds and terrestrial invertebrates. Uses bird feeders.

Behavior

Foraging

Gleans insects from bark and foliage. Hangs upside down. Hammers seeds against branch to open them.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest in hole in tree, built of grass, moss, hair, and feathers. Uses nest boxes.

Egg Description

White, unmarked or with minute reddish brown speckling.

Clutch Size

3-9 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless.

Conservation Status

Oak woodlands in California are under threat of development.

Other Names

Mésange unicolore (French)

Sources used to construct this page:

Cicero, C. 2000. Oak Titmouse (Baeolophus inornatus) and Juniper Titmouse (Baeolophus ridgwayi). In The Birds of North America, No. 485 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.