21 February 2022
If you listen to birds and have learned to identify a few songs, our resident tufted titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) is an easy one. His typical spring song is a clear whistled “Pete, Pete, Pete” or “Peter, Peter, Peter.”
However he has some tricks up his sleeve. He may get creative with a different-sounding Peter. This one (near a red-winged blackbird) sings “jury, jury, jury” almost like a Carolina wren.
Sometimes he’s really loud and I wonder, Who is that??
Or he sings an oddly accented Peter also quite loud (cardinal in the background).
And here, in an unattended AudioMoth recording, he doesn’t sound like a titmouse at all.
If it’s a song you can’t figure out at a time of year when new migrants have not yet returned maybe it’s a tufted titmouse.
(photo by Steve Gosser, audio from Xeno Canto)
In my Houston neighborhood almost every bird call where I say “who the heck is that” turns out to be a blue jay. (Also most of the red shouldered hawk calls turn out to be blue jays). It’s amazing.
I have heard this call many times, but never knew what bird it was. Thanks for posting these sound bits!
Perfect timing for this article! Thanks Kate!
I heard a strange bird at my rural home this morning that I couldn’t place. I decided to try the Merlin bird app’s sound ID. It said Tufted Titmouse, even though it was not the typical Pete or Peter song that I have heard for decades. Right after that ID, I heard the titmouse making its nasal call from the same location, confirming the app ID.