Bridled Titmouse

The bridled titmouse is about 10 cm (3.9 in) long and weighs about 10 g (0.35 oz). It is a small bird with a distinct crest. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies B. w. wollweberi have a black crown and crest with a large deep gray central patch. They have a black line through the eye that continues as an arc behind the ear coverts on an otherwise white face. The sides of their neck are white. Their chin and throat are black and just connect to the base of the black arc. Their upperparts, wings, and tail are deep olive gray with a thin black line separating the hindneck and upper back; the olive gray becomes more olive to the rear. Their breast is pale olive gray that becomes pale olive buffy on the belly and undertail coverts. They have a dark brown iris, a black bill, and bluish gray legs and feet. Juveniles have a grayish throat and a paler iris than adults. Subspecies B. w. vandevenderi has a grayish green rump, a wide wash of smoke gray across the breast and flanks, and a whiter belly than the nominate. B. w. phillipsi has a greenish yellow rump, a paler breast with less gray than vandevenderi, and a yellow wash on the belly. B. w. caliginosus is darker and has more olive upperparts than the nominate. The black stripes on its face are wider than the nominate's.

The bridled titmouse has a disjunct distribution; the range of the southernmost subspecies B. w. caliginosus is not contiguous with the others'. The subspecies are found thus:

B. w. vandevenderi: mountains of central Arizona north of the Gila River and south and southeast along the Mogollon Rim to southwestern New Mexico B. w. phillipsi: mountains of southeastern Arizona south of the Gila River and south into western Chihuahua and southern Sonora in northern Mexico B. w. wollweberi: western Mexico from Sinaloa and western Durango south to Jalisco and Michoacán; central Mexico from Colima and southern Jalisco east to Puebla and western Veracruz; eastern Mexico from central Nuevo León and western Tamaulipas south to west-central Veracruz B. w. caliginosus: southwestern Mexico's Sierra Madre del Sur in Guerrero and Oaxaca The species has also occurred as a vagrant in southwestern Arizona. In the U. S. the bridled titmouse primarily inhabits oak and oak-pine-juniper woodlands, and is also found in riparian woods. In Mexico it inhabits oak and pine-oak woodlands and further south adds oak savanna to its habitat. In elevation it generally ranges from 1,200 to 2,700 m (3,900 to 8,900 ft). In southeastern Arizona it typically is found from 1,600 to 2,200 m (5,200 to 7,200 ft) and in southern Mexico occurs as low as 300 m (1,000 ft).

The bridled titmouse feeds mostly on adult and larval insects, and especially in winter adds acorn pulp to its diet. It takes insects by gleaning from foliage, trunks, and twigs, from within acorns and galls, and occasionally during a brief hover. It winter it commonly forages in mixed-species feeding flocks with warblers, kinglets, vireos, nuthatches, and wrens. It is not known to store food.