Tufted Titmouse. Photograph by the author.
Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) has been noticeably absent from the avifauna of the Nantucket archipelago since the northward incursion of this species into New England some fifty years ago. Nantucket has since been the only county in Massachusetts that lacks any titmouse records. This status changed in mid-March 2026, when a single Tufted Titmouse spent a couple of weeks feeder-hopping around Madaket on the west side of the island. Why and how this individual made its way to Nantucket offers some rather exceptional insight into this species’s well-documented geographic range expansion and seasonal movements.
To view the rest of the article you'll need to
subscribe. Bird Observer publishes original articles on birding locations, on avian populations and natural history, on regional rarities, field notes, field records, photographs, and art work.