Very common and familiar bird in woods, parks, gardens, and at feeders. Usually in ones and twos, often with chickadees, and can be quite tame. Typical song is a loud ‘peter, peter, peter,’ but has amazing range of calls. Often the first to scold owls. ID: Quite large and muscular, noticeably bigger than a chickadee with a long tail and distinctive crest. Gray above, pale below with markedly buff flanks and with a big, black, beady eye that stares at you. Juv: paler, lacking buff flanks and black forehead, these molted in through fall.