Bridled Titmouse

Overview

Bridled Titmouse: Small titmouse, gray upperparts, black-bordered gray crest, white face, black bib, eyestripe, ear patch border, pale gray underparts. Gray wings, tail. Weak flight with shallow wing beats. Flies short distances with several quick wing beats, then pulls wings to sides.

Range and Habitat

Bridled Titmouse: Resident from southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico southward through mountains of Mexico to southern Mexico. Preferred habitats include oak and mixed oak-pine-juniper woodlands.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Bridled Titmouse is the smallest North American titmouse.
Though populations appear to be steady, its limited distribution in the U.S. combined with future habitat destruction could cause problems. Destruction of oak woodlands in Mexico has caused its extirpation in some historic breeding regions.
Unlike the other titmice species, they do not hide seeds for future use. The part of the brain used to store memories of hiding places is small in this species compared with other species that frequently hide food.
A group of titmice are collectively known as a "banditry" and a "dissimulation" of titmice.

The Bridled Titmouse has a large range, estimated globally at 530,000 square kilometers. The bird is native to the United States and Mexico. It prefers moist tropical and subtropical forest habitats as well as urban areas. It has an estimated global population of 860,000 individuals and does not meet population decline criteria for inclusion on the IUCN Red List. Because of its population status, the Bridled Titmouse has an evaluation status of Least Concern.