The Titmouse is a familiar songbird with its hallmark crest on its head found everywhere in the south shore of Buzzards Bay. It is no bigger than the similar Chickadee in anatomy and behavior. Both are very selective at not eating directly at a bird feeder but instead carrying their food away from where they found it to another place where they can leisurely pick through it looking for an edible size and nutritional content to their own taste and liking.
In distinctive appearance and small size, they are easily identified in a blending of gray and brown appearance (as in my illustration) with the male being darker and more profoundly colored than the female, being camouflaged with earth-tone shades not too easily identified while sitting on her nest.
Artwork of both male and female is easily clarified by naturalist experts in reproduction of mated pairs.
Both parents have learned to selectively reproduce with four or five eggs and not to begin incubating until the last is laid so that all will begin finally hatching at the very same time, develop and mature effectively and adapt to their environment.
My mission of bird reporting is to acknowledge examples of Darwin’s formula for inner habits for survival of the species.
We all know that conditions of the natural world are daily developing into a troubling climate change with a virus pandemic that may also have an effect on the natural conditions of planet earth; we don’t know much about affecting many different species of birds.
My mission of documenting the obvious, daily change and effect of habitat is turning out to be a moving target to find remedial answers.
My inspiration in writing and illustrating about bird watching of the Tufted Titmouse is to further reader understanding of wild bird behavior, no matter how small but before our very eyes and in our own backyards.
By George B. Emmons