Well, I have had this image since early July in Arkansas. I have looked up several images to try to identify this crested bird. I searched and searched and decided that it must be a flycatcher of some sort. I was wrong. I think that it is the apparent size of the bird that threw me off. It seems so much larger than 6" of a Tufted Titmouse. When I gave up on the ID, I sent the photo to Dave Brown, local birder extraordinaire and he let me know that I had a Tufted Titmouse.
This bird is on a power line and not in my sister's yard so you can imagine the distance that I was shooting. Much to my surprise the lighting worked in my favor this time. The shots turned out fairly clearly. The Tufted Titmouse is a very common bird to Arkansas, but I think that this is the only one that I saw.
They are akin to the Chickadees and are very bold around people, not the shy type. Someone recently asked about a Titmouse on the Discussion Group. The reply was that there are no recorded sightings of this little bird in this province. If you find one, be sure to tell someone. First sightings are a very big thing.
