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Birders
Related: About this forumCan ya help me out with who this little guy is?
Smaller than a chrested titmouse and has the brown along the wings.
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Can ya help me out with who this little guy is? (Original Post)
AndyS
Jan 2023
OP
Tufted Titmouse are common here in the north. They flock with Chickadees in winter.
Donkees
Jan 2023
#2
sprinkleeninow
(20,577 posts)1. I dunno, but he/she a cutie! 😍 The gifts of nature are awesome!!
Donkees
(32,437 posts)2. Tufted Titmouse are common here in the north. They flock with Chickadees in winter.
Ruben Giron
AndyS
(14,559 posts)5. Yeah, that looks like him!
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.
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/
https://nestwatch.org/connect/news/nestwatch-data-in-action-studying-hybridization-in-titmice/
CaliforniaPeggy
(152,404 posts)3. A beautiful photo, Andy! Thanks for sharing. n/t
we can do it
(12,789 posts)4. Tufted timouse, so cute!
AndyS
(14,559 posts)6. Yeah, that seems to be the answer. Thanks.
hlthe2b
(106,721 posts)7. Definitely a "cutie pie"... but species, I couldn't say.
IA8IT
(5,924 posts)9. One Fine Foto!!