Tufted Titmouse - by Diane Porter
The crest of a Tufted Titmouse shows what the bird is feeling.
The titmouse can point its crest straight up, signaling confidence.
A submissive Tufted Titmouse lowers its crest, sleeking it down like a skullcap when interacting with dominant birds.
Juvenile Tufted Titmice, which have lower social status than adults, often keep their crests down when the more dominant adults are around.
If only there were a dictionary of Tufted Titmouse crest positions that would translate what every angle and twitch of the crest means!
Unfortunately, that resource is not yet available. We don’t, after all, have a way to look into a bird’s soul and know what it is experiencing.
But I make a point of noticing what the titmice are doing with their crests and what a bird’s situation is. Like studying a foreign language by listening and observing context.
I’ve noticed that when a Tufted Titmouse is relaxed, the crest is likely to be in an intermediate position. This happens when the bird seems to be “just chilling,” with no predators around, no rivals near, and no mate to impress.
Birding starts with identifying the bird. The next step is patience, observing and trying to understand what the bird is doing.
That’s what happens when I’m just chilling…
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