Juniper Titmouse

Baeolophus ridgwayi

Formerly called the Plain Titmouse, in 1997 the American Ornithologists’ Union separated the Oak Titmouse and the Juniper Titmouse into two species. The Oak Titmouse is a resident in California and exists in very limited areas outside its borders. The Juniper Titmouse is resident east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and into the Great Basin, the southern Rocky Mountains, and the Colorado Plateau. These birds are nonmigratory and stay in their range throughout the year.

The habitat required to sustain these birds is mature Oak-Juniper or Pinyon-Juniper woodlands with trees large enough to have suitable cavities for nesting. These birds live at elevations of about 2000 feet to as high as 8000 feet.

Today’s science regards the Juniper Titmouse as monotypic (i.e. no subspecies).

I’ve met this species twice. Once was while driving through Zion National Park, and the second while visiting friends in New Mexico. I found these birds difficult to differentiate by sight from the familiar Oak Titmouse I find in my San Diego yard.