The Song of a Tufted Titmouse
In another, more wooded part of the neighborhood, a Tufted Titmouse sang this morning. Many Titmice have been singing for a month or so now, and their whistled peter-peter songs are so familiar and common that I’m guilty of usually hearing them more as background sound, and not paying much attention to them. A small, silver-gray bird with bright black eyes and perky crest, white breast, and peach-colored patches under its wings, a Tufted Titmouse is among the most common birds around our yard and woods year-round, very often coming to the feeders and flocking with Carolina Chickadees, Downy Woodpeckers and Brown-headed Nuthatches. Its raspy day-day-day alarm calls are frequently heard.
Maybe because this one was so close, in a tree by the side of the road, its song sounded particularly clear and pure, with a more complex quality in the notes than I’ve ever noticed before. Its simple, whistled peter-peter-peter suddenly sounded exotic. Each note carried a hint of a stringed sound, with a slightly varied quality, lyrical and expressive. I don’t think this particular song was unusual for a Titmouse – it’s just that I had never really stopped and listened carefully to one sing.