Bird of the Month: Black-Capped Chickadee

Probably my favorite bird (as evidenced by The Bird House logo), the Black-Capped Chickadee is one of those birds that just make people smile.

Is it the easily recognized song? The quick flight to and from the feeder?



Black-Capped Chickadee



This small 5½ inch bird is identified by its black cap and white cheeks. The back is gray with white under parts; wings are edged in white. What’s also hard to miss is the characteristic buzzy call of “chick-a-dee-dee-dee.” Scientists have noted the greater the danger, the more “dee’s” heard at the end of its call. The other call is a second-note whistle—“fee-bee”—with the second note lower than the first. Males use this to attract females and define territories.

Black-Capped Chickadees may travel less than a mile from where they hatched and may attach to a flock. Flocks are seasonal groupings from late summer through winter often built around a territorial pair. Black-Capped Chickadees do not migrate.

Chickadees are exhaustingly active. Their wings beat about 27 times per second. The bird can be seen hopping, clinging or hanging from branches. In winter they need 20 times more food for survival. When you watch them eat, taking one seed and flying to a branch to eat it and then flying back for another seed, one can’t help but think, “No wonder they use so much energy!”

Chickadees can be seen at most types of feeders eating black oil sunflower seeds, peanuts, suet and even nyjer. They like berries and insects. Try cracking walnuts for them for high-energy food. Chickadees hide seeds for later recovery and are able to remember many hiding places.

Nests are excavated in rotten wood of trees or built in a birdhouse. Nests often are lined with moss, hair or other downy material. Six to eight eggs are laid; only the female incubates the eggs, and the male brings her food. Incubation lasts 12 days. Chicks fledge in 16 days.

Houses for chickadees should have an entrance hole 1-1/8 inch to 1½ inch in diameter and be placed 5 to 10 feet high on a tree or post.