They are pretty little birds with gray suits and dark black eyes and a black face. They are tufted titmice and we have a family in our yard each year.
The year-round residents visit our feeders regularly and they absolutely love peanuts.
I don’t spread peanuts in my yard as much as I once did because that encourages the squirrels – destructive varmints that they are! The squirrels actually gnawed off the red plastic on the arms of our outside Adirondack chairs – so no peanuts for them!
But the feed I am now using in my main feeder has a few nuts and berries mixed in, which the titmice devour. They also like sunflower hearts and seeds.
We once had a family that nested in a box on our patio and we happened to be there when five little ones fledged.
The adults didn’t pay us a bit of mind as they tweeted and chirped and cajoled the chicks to fly.
The friendly little birds have a cheerful “peta-peta-peta” call. They generally have two broods a year with 5 to as many as 7 eggs.
An interesting name, the word “tit” comes from a Scandinavian word meaning “little.” The titmouse is slightly larger than a sparrow but not quite as big as cardinal.
They are always welcomed guests in my yard – or maybe it’s the human family that’s welcomed in theirs?