One of our nest boxes contains a nest which I know was not a built by a bluebird, but I couldn’t tell which bird had built it. You should know that I’m not a birder. I know a few experts and they can tell everything about a bird from the nest, or the call, or the flight pattern, etc. I know nothing but what I’ve picked up in the last few years.

One thing I’ve learned to recognize is a bluebird nest, especially in our boxes. They are tidy, somewhat tall, and built with uniform grass stems. This one had moss, some grass, and bits of fur. It was also quite short. Definitely not a bluebird.

Last weekend when we came up to the box and opened it, there was a bird sitting on the nest. I’m assuming it was the mother, but I guess it could have been the father. I now knew what the bird was because I’d seen it before! It was a Black-crested Titmouse (Baeolophus atricristatus)!

The one I saw before and wrote about here, had shown the same behavior. Sometimes, when we walk up to inspect a box, we see a bird fly away. This is the second titmouse I’ve seen and each one has stayed on the nest. I don’t know if this is regular behavior, but I’m impressed. I get the feeling the little bird would do anything to protect its eggs. Two lumbering giants approach, each weighing over 100 times what the little bird weighs, and it doesn’t fly away!

This bird did something that the last one I saw didn’t. It tried to frighten me away! At least that’s what I think it did. It might just have become frightened itself and started to fly away before deciding to stay put. The photo below shows this.

It flapped its wings and opened it’s mouth and hissed at me! Shades of a Jurassic Park Velociraptor! I have to say it worked. I jumped back and my heart was racing.

Black-crested Titmouse In Defense Mode

The next photo shows it calm again, lying very still and trying to make itself tiny, although its tail feathers are sticking up. Notice that its crest is flattened.

Black-crested Titmouse Protecting Its Nest

By the way, the plural of titmouse is titmice. Nice!