Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Tufted titmouse

Baeolophus bicolor

Description:

This bird, which usually eats nuts, seeds and insects in the summertime, had caught what I was told was a worm snake (Carphophis amoenus), although someone else suggested it could be some species of brown or earth snake. At one point, the bird flew further away from me and unfortunately dropped the snake in flight near the creek. I remained watching and about five minutes later, the bird had caught the snake again and flew off with it.

Habitat:

The Brumley Nature Preserve North is an area with meadows, woods, a creek and ponds. This bird caught the snake near the creek.

Notes:

This was a very surprising spotting as I had never heard of titmice eating snakes. They come to my feeders often for nuts and seeds. The bird was very determined to hang on to its catch.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

17 Comments

Maria dB
Maria dB 3 years ago

Thank you, triggsturner - a pleasure sharing the honors with you. Hope we both continue to observe interesting bird behaviors!

triggsturner
triggsturner 3 years ago

Great spotting Maria and congratulations on your first place. A very unusual spotting. Brilliant!

Maria dB
Maria dB 3 years ago

Thank you, SukanyaDatta and Sergio! Hope you and all other Project Noah members are staying well and healthy!

Sergio Monteiro
Sergio Monteiro 3 years ago

Congratulations Maria.

SukanyaDatta
SukanyaDatta 3 years ago

CONGRATULATIONS, really stunned by this shot.

Maria dB
Maria dB 3 years ago

Oh wow - I didn't know that had happened - thanks for your congratulations and to the team that voted on entries. There is apparently a question about whether this is a worm snake or another species of snake so I'll change the description. But the fact remains that it was really unusual to see this species of bird with a snake.

mauna Kunzah
mauna Kunzah 3 years ago

Congratulations, Maria!

Brian38
Brian38 3 years ago

Congratulations, Maria for your well deserved First Place!

Machi
Machi 3 years ago

Congratulations Maria dB, your spotting tied for First Place in our 2019 Best Wildlife Photo Competition - Birds category!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectnoah/pho...

Twitter: https://twitter.com/projectnoah/status/1...

AshleyT
AshleyT 5 years ago

Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!

Maria dB
Maria dB 5 years ago

Thank you for your nice comments, Brian, Mark, Sukanya, Sergio, Daniele and Josh! I have to admit that this was one of my favorite spottings last year. :)

Josh Asel
Josh Asel 5 years ago

What a savage little titmouse! Great capture!

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 5 years ago

Great series of images Maria! Perfect for the 2019 Best Wildlife Photo special mission.

Sergio Monteiro
Sergio Monteiro 5 years ago

Very nice!

SukanyaDatta
SukanyaDatta 5 years ago

So the early bird caught the wo...I mean snake.Again! SUPER shots.
...

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 5 years ago

Super spotting.

Brian38
Brian38 5 years ago

Wow Maria!! Amazing series and spotting!

Maria dB
Spotted by
Maria dB

North Carolina, USA

Spotted on Dec 8, 2018
Submitted on Feb 5, 2019

Related Spottings

Tufted Titmouse Tufted Titmouse Tufted Titmouse Titmouse

Nearby Spottings

Golden-crowned kinglet Eastern bluebirds Barred owl Unnamed spotting
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team