Titmice in the Desert
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North America’s smallest, and perhaps cutest, Baeolophus is a common bird up in the wooded canyons of southeast Arizona, where small noisy flocks feed among the oak twigs, this time of year often accompanied by migrants and wintering specialties.
Bridled Titmouses are much scarcer in the willows, cottonwoods, and mesquites of the Sonoran Desert, and yesterday morning marked only the second time that I had encountered the species in the lowland bosques of Catalina State Park. We ran into what were almost certainly two parties, a couple of birds at the Group Area and another back at the Picnic Area, nervously picking among the mesquite twigs while Rufous-winged Sparrows foraged on the open ground beneath them.
Though they breed not all that much higher on the slopes of the Catalinas, it’s hard not to wonder whether these crested visitors aren’t part of the winter incursion of jays, finches, and other montane species that is building this year. Maybe we’ll be seeing more of them, perhaps even here in town, as the season progresses.
