Black-capped Chickadees
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The Black-capped Chickadee, Parus atricpillus, measures 5-1/4" in length. This is a small energetic bird that is fairly tame and common to backyards.
Description:
Black-Capped Chickadees are well known for their distinct markings. Besides the black cap, they also sport a sooty black bib from the chin and throat to the lower sides of the cheeks and upper breast. The cheeks and the sides of the nape are bright white while the breast, belly, and flanks are usually buff. The outer tail feathers are broadly fringed with white. The bill, legs, and feet are black. Both sexes are similar in appearance.
Distribution:
Black-capped Chickadees can be found year-round across Canada and in the northern half of the U.S. and make their homes in mixed and deciduous woods, willow groves, thickets and shade trees. They will also live in suburbs provided nest sites are readily available.
The famous "chick-a-dee-dee" call of the Black-Capped Chickadee is one of the most complex vocalizations in nature. Researchers have noted that with slight phrasing variations the call can convey several different messages. It may serve as a contact call or an alarm, as well as a way to identify individuals or flocks.
Black-Capped or Carolina?
Black-Capped Chickadees are closely related to the Carolina Chickadee. Often their ranges overlap and the two species will sometimes cross-breed. As a result, it can be difficult to separate them. The most obvious difference between them is their songs. Black-Caps sing a two-note song and have a slower, lower-pitched call. Carolinas sing a four-note song. Hybrids tend to sing three notes. Black-Caps are also slightly larger and have more white edging in the wing.
Nesting:
Chickadees are "secondary cavity nesters." This means they will use a hole in a tree or cavity left by another bird as a nest site. The pair excavates the nest, using a natural cavity or sometimes an old woodpecker nest. Chickadees will line these cavities with moss or animal fur, creating a soft spot to lay and hatch their eggs. Females lay 6-8 eggs that are white with fine, reddish dots. Incubation lasts 12-13 days, and fledglings are ready to leave the nest after about 16 days. Black-Capped Chickadees raise one brood per season. You can provide an "artificial" cavity by adding a chickadee nest box to your backyard.
They may interbreed with Carolina Chickadees or Mountain Chickadees where their ranges overlap. The Black-capped and Carolina chicadees are virtually impossible to tell apart visually, but they are readily distinguished by call. Their point of overlap is near New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Song / Calls
The vocalizations of Black-capped chickadees are highly complex; 13 distinct types of vocalizations have been classified, many of which are complex and can communicate different types of information. Chickadees' complex vocalizations are likely an evolutionary adaptation to their habitat: they live and feed in dense vegetation, and even when the flock is close together, individual birds tend to be out of each others' visual range.
The song of the Black-capped is a simple, clear whistle of two notes, identical in rhythm, the first roughly a whole-step below the second. This is distinguished from the Carolina chickadee's four-note call fee-bee fee-bay; the lower notes are nearly identical but the higher fee notes are omitted, making the Black-capped song like "bee bay".
The males only sing the song when in relative isolation from other chickadees (including their mates). In late summer, some young birds will sing only a single note. Both sexes sometimes make a faint version of the song, and this appears to be used when feeding young.
The most familiar call is the familiar chick-a-dee-dee-dee which gave this bird its name. This call has been observed to consist of up to four distinct units which can be arranged in different patterns to communicate information about threats from predators and coordination of group movement. Recent study of the call shows that the number of dees indicates the level of threat from nearby predators. An analysis of over 5,000 alarm calls from chickadees, it was found that alarm calls by triggered small, dangerous raptors had a shorter interval between "chick" and "dee" and tended to have extra "dees", usually averaging four instead of two. In one case, a warning call about a pygmy owl, a prime threat to chickadees, contained 23 dees. The Carolina Chickadee makes a similar call which is faster and higher-pitched.
There are a number of other calls and sounds that these Chickadees make, such as a gargle noise which is usually used by males to indicate a threat of attacking another male, often when feeding. This call is also used in sexual contexts. This noise is among the most complex of the calls, containing 2-9 of 14 distinct notes in one population that was studied.
Related Websites: Birds of Nova Scotia (Info & Color Drawings) ... USGS ... Greennature.com
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