Here's a fairly rare visitor to my blog pages. I've only captured semi-decent pictures twice in the past, once at MJC, and once in my backyard (!). On my walk the other day along the Tuolumne River, I saw an Oak Titmouse (Baeolophus inornatus) perched on the Elderberry bower where I've seen a multitude of bird species. I've been able to stand inside the "bower" and have birds landing all around me. Today I was still approaching the shrub when I saw the silhouette of a bird with a crest. That usually means Phainopepla, but this one was too small. Therefore it had to be the Titmouse. It was most polite and remained perched for a dozen or so pictures.
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| "Be sure to get the left profile; it's my best side" |
The Oak Titmouse is essentially a California endemic species, with populations in Baja (which is California, despite the international boundary). They spill over into Oregon a bit on the north end of the state. They are closely associated with the vast oak woodlands that cover the coast ranges and Sierra Nevada foothills. There is a closely related species, the Juniper Titmouse (they were once considered the same species), but there are specific differences, and the two populations are geographically separated by the Sierra Nevada (there is only a small area of overlapping range). Once again, this allows us to see evolution in action: the birds have diverged in part due to the different vegetation in the higher, colder and drier Basin and Range province beyond the Sierra Nevada.
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