NestlingsPicture of the Week: Tufted Titmouse Newborns

Picture of the Week: Tufted Titmouse Newborns

TUTI newborns. Bet Zimmerman foto
Photo by Bet Zimmerman, 05/02/2010

 

I am having a Black-capped Chickadee and Tufted Titmouse explosion of nesting on my trails this year. These babies might have hatched today. Notice one unhatched egg below. There are six nestlings crammed in the nest. You can see a small piece of cellophane (possibly used as a snakeskin subsitute) on the lower right. This box is at a landfill so they have access to plenty of trash.

Tufted titmice seem to like boxes with large interiors, near the tree line, and boxes hanging on trees. More about Titmice nesting habits.

When I get Tufted Titmice nesting in a Zuern (tree branch) box, they tend to fill up the whole box, both in front of and behind the baffle, and lay their eggs in the back. See photo.

Feferences and More Information:


Previous Pictures of the Week: © Original photographs are copyrighted, and may not be used without the permission of the photographer. Please honor their copyright protection. If you would like to use a photo for educational purposes, you can contact me.


You cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve the habitat in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and you will exterminate the species as surely as if you had shot it. So conservation means that you have to preserve forest and grassland, river and lake, even the sea itself. This is vital not only for the preservation of animal life generally, but for the future existence of man himself—a point that seems to escape many people.
-Gerald Durrell, The Nature Conservancy


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