Oak Titmouse
Hal Brown Park, Kentfield, California, USA
September 2021
Member of the Titmice/Chickadee Family
§A Dissimulation of Titmice§ (just checking dictionary.com here, and dissimulation means "concealment of one's thoughts, feelings, or character; pretense", so yes, definitely a completely deranged collective noun for this bird, if you were wondering)
{Etymology Corner} So, we finally got a titmouse, which means it's time for a trip to the Etymology Corner for sure. I'm sure you're wondering, as I was, why on earth it's called that. The culprit, as is often the case, is Old English. 'Tit' was a word used for any small animal or thing, and 'mase', which eventually morphed into 'mouse', also meant.. small. So the name of the bird means, basically, "teeny, tiny bird (or other animal, who can be bothered, really)"
~True Bird Fact~ Haven't seen this many synonyms for plain when looking up a bird for a long time. "Nondescript save for it's crest" raves allaboutbirds.org, and describes the bird as "very-drab plumaged", meanwhile, audubon.org enthuses that it's "as plain as a bird can be." But, if you dig deeper, you'll see that people really like the Oak Titmouse. Dave Shulford, in his Marin County Breeding Birds Atlas memorably describes him like this "Though drab in color, this crested parid is the voice and soul of the oaks." I guess what I'm saying is, sometimes there really isn't a fun true bird fact, but a bird still just has 'vibes'. Oak titmouse is such a bird.
Quick, read this incredible blog post about the titmouse, from Nature in Novato, and forget that I was supposed to come up with a bird fact myself.
