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Donkees

(32,437 posts)
2. Tufted Titmouse are common here in the north. They flock with Chickadees in winter.
Wed Jan 25, 2023, 08:16 PM
Jan 2023



Ruben Giron

AndyS

(14,559 posts)
5. Yeah, that looks like him!
Wed Jan 25, 2023, 08:41 PM
Jan 2023

I also have a visitor that I've called a Crested Titmouse that's half again larger than this guy and all grey, no brown. I'll dig out a pic to share.

Donkees

(32,437 posts)
8. The 'all grey visitor' might be a juvenile Black-crested, a hybrid, or possibly a Juniper titmouse.
Thu Jan 26, 2023, 06:17 AM
Jan 2023

The plain all-gray Junipers are further west:


The Juniper Titmouse is gray overall with a slightly paler gray belly. The dark eye stands out on an otherwise plain gray bird. The bill is also dark.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Juniper_Titmouse/id#


The hybrid titmouse territory is described here:

Hybrids in Texas are only found in a narrow strip about 25-30 miles wide that stretches from the Gulf Coast northward through Austin and past the western side of Fort Worth, and then extends to the west at the Red River. In Oklahoma, hybrids are only found in the extreme southwestern corner of the state from just west of the Wichita Mountains northwestward to the Texas panhandle. Crest color of hybrid titmice ranges from gray to jet black. The foreheads of hybrids typically are brown or chestnut, while Tufted Titmice have black foreheads and Black-crested Titmice have pale foreheads. Identification of hybrids is especially difficult at the edges of the hybrid zone because their plumage looks closer to that of the adjacent distinct species.



https://nestwatch.org/connect/news/nestwatch-data-in-action-studying-hybridization-in-titmice/
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