Oak Titmouse Gallery
Baeolophus inornatus
eBird gives this description for the Oak Titmouse: Completely nondescript: all gray-brown without any sort of color pattern. Still cute and personable, often in small family groups bustling through their namesake oak trees (though they occasionally stray into other species of trees). Visits feeders. Extremely similar to Juniper Titmouse, but separated by range. The website All About Birds gives this additional descriptive information about the Oak Titmouse: Nondescript save for its crest, the Oak Titmouse might not wow many bird watchers at first sight. But these vocal, active birds characterize the warm, dry oak woods from southern Oregon to Baja California—they’re “the voice and soul of the oaks,” according to one early naturalist. Mates pair for life, and both partners noisily defend their territory year-round. The Oak Titmouse and the nearly identical Juniper Titmouse of the Great Basin were once treated as a single species, the Plain Titmouse.
I saw and photographed my first Oak Titmouse on January 11, 2024 while on the second day of a Bobcat Safari with Brent Paull. I got a quick look at this small, plain looking bird as we explored along Dry Creek Road in the Cental Valley of California.
Cool Facts About The Oak Titmouse From All About Birds:
- One of the Oak Titmouse’s vocalizations is a peter peter peter song, which is apparently equivalent to the similar song of the Tufted Titmouse. The song’s pattern, of high-frequency notes followed by low-frequency notes, is seen across the titmouse and chickadee family.
- 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’s species name, inornatus, means “plain,” appropriately for this very drab-plumaged bird. Taxonomists used to lump the Oak Titmouse with the Juniper Titmouse, referring to both as the Plain Titmouse. Though the two sister species look very similar, the Juniper Titmouse sings differently and lives mainly among not oaks but junipers. Their ranges overlap only in extreme northern California.
- In its pursuit of insects and plant materials, the Oak Titmouse forages at a rate of about 40 food-catching attempts every 15 minutes.
- The oldest Oak Titmouse on record was at least 9 years old when it was recaught and rereleased during banding operations in California.