Brave Titmouse Bird Plucks Hair From a Sleeping Fox

Jane and Dan of Texas Backyard Wildlife, who previously shared footage of a mother fox moving her four pups into an underground den in their Austin yard, captured the amusing sight of a brave little black-crested titmouse plucking individual hairs from a sleeping fox in order to make a warm nest. The bird first tested out the fox’s temperament, just in case. The snoozing vulpine woke up in annoyance a few times, but then went back to sleep. That’s when the bird went to work.

A fox snoozing in the sunshine outside a den was being disturbed by a tiny titmouse, who seemed intent on doing everything she could to be irritating. …Once she’d established that the fox wasn’t going to kill her, she went to work plucking out fur and the fox let her do it! We were astonished. She hopped around on the fox’s back, harvested a beakful of fur, and took off with it. She was back the next day for more.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.