The Tufted Titmouse is the chickadee's slightly bigger, crested cousin — soft gray above, white below, with peach-washed flanks and large dark eyes that give it a permanently startled expression. Its ringing "peter-peter-peter" whistle is one of the first bird songs of a Michigan late winter.
Titmice are year-round residents of deciduous woods and leafy neighborhoods, common in the southern Lower Peninsula and steadily pushing farther north — a range expansion likely helped by feeders and warming winters. They travel with mixed chickadee flocks in winter and share the chickadees' bold curiosity about people.
Insects — especially caterpillars — dominate in summer; acorns, beech nuts, and seeds in winter. At feeders they take one sunflower seed at a time, fly to a branch, and hammer it open held in their feet.
They're common through the southern and central Lower Peninsula and have been expanding northward for decades; they remain scarce in the Upper Peninsula. Feeders appear to be helping the advance.
Yes — titmice line their nests with mammal hair and will boldly pull it from live raccoons, squirrels, dogs, and occasionally napping humans.
The titmouse is larger, all-gray with a pointed crest and no black bib. They're close relatives and often flock together in winter, but the crest makes the titmouse unmistakable.
Yes, in any month. Numbers are highest from April through July. Winter is often the easiest time to find them, with bare branches, open sightlines, and snow cover concentrating birds at reliable food.
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