Tufted Titmouse Family

We had the pleasure of watching a family of tufted titmouse birds who took up residence in a birdhouse in our backyard last summer. We only observed one baby who already looked quite big when it first made an appearance at the entrance to the birdhouse. The birdhouse was about 12 feet high on the tree, with the opening facing south. By the time the fledgling was ready to leave the nest, it appeared larger than the adult bird. Because this baby needed to be fed so often (about every 20 minutes), I was able to set up my tripod and camera and wait for the right moment to catch the mother feeding the baby. As you can see, the baby was anxiously waiting with her mouth open for that delectable worm or caterpillar!I resented going back to work the next day, because, as I suspected, the fledgling was ready to fly the coop and we missed photographing that event! Be sure to scroll down to see “Bad Hair Day”!

Showing off her Catch

Dinner's Ready

I'm Back with Reinforcements

I'm Ready!

Dinner Time

Finally!

Feeding her Baby

Open Wide

Got It!

Just Making Sure

Delicious!

Another Meal

Another Delicacy

As you can see, this bird house got eaten up by the squirrels over past winters. We just took it down and replaced it with a new red cedar house which will hopefully look a lot better in this year’s pictures. Here are some other shots of the tufted titmouse birds.