When living at the little house near the Ville, there was always a bird feeder in the front tree. We’d watch all sorts of feathery critters flock there to eat in the wintertime. I missed that when living in the city… but now we’re back in the restaurant business serving lunch to birds.
Since hummingbirds don’t stick around in the wintertime, we switch up the menu from sugary water to dry seeds.
The eatery’s grand winter opening!
We were slow to hang the feeder — I didn’t do it until Mr. Pesky started bragging about how many birds were eating at his place. When it finally quit raining long enough that I could hang the feeder, the first to try out the smorgasbord of seeds was a female cardinal, followed by her male counterpart.
It wasn’t long until another bird came along. I thought it was a blue jay… maybe a female one without vibrant colors. But it was smaller than the cardinal or the size I thought a blue jay should be, so I asked Google what kind of bird it was.
Google explained that we were serving a titmouse.
A titmouse is a small, cheery-voiced songbird from the tit and chickadee family — a nonmigratory woodland bird. Not very original, the name basically means “small bird.”
Google also let me know he prefers sunflower seeds. I figure the side eye I’m getting is because of his displeasure over what we’re serving out here.
We’ve not had a ton of birds so far, but we’ve only been open for business for a couple days. It doesn’t help that Merida jets out the front door scaring them off every couple hours.
It’s time to consider a relocation strategy. 😏
Now you know: The oldest known wild Tufted Titmouse was at least 13 years, 3 months old. It was banded in Virginia in 1962 and found in the same state in 1974.