Oak Titmouse

About the Oak Titmouse

The oak titmouse (Baeolophus inornatus) is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. The American Ornithologists' Union split the plain titmouse into the oak titmouse and the juniper titmouse in 1996, due to distinct differences in song, preferred habitat, and genetic makeup.

The oak titmouse is a small, brown-tinged gray bird with a small tuft or crest. The face is plain, and the undersides are a lighter gray. Sexes are similar, as there is very little to no sexual dimorphism. This species lives year-round on the Pacific slope, resident from southern Oregon south through California west of the Sierra Nevada to Baja California, but its range surrounds the central San Joaquin Valley. It prefers open woodlands of warm, dry oak and oak-pine at low to mid-elevations but can also be found in forests as long as adequate oak trees are present. With these habitats, the oak titmouse lives typically in Quercus agrifolia (coast live oak) and Quercus lobata (valley oak); which provides sufficient cavities, dense foliage, and twig piles that those oaks provide, oak titmouse utilizes such sources for nesting.

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