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Chickadee's are back!

16 years ago

Chickadees have been absent from my feeder of late. After I installed a DIY magic halo, the house sparrows went away. shortly afterwards, the Chickadee's came back. I think they were not fond being swamped. Hell, the house sparrows can swarm a cardinal off the feeder.

The Chickadees are chiefly the reason I got into bird feeding in the first place. When I first put up a feeder, no one came for a long time. One day, a tiny bird appeared and ate out of the feeder. I have never seen a Chickadee before. I used to live in the city, so all I got were pigeons and house sparrows.

Initially, I thought Chickadee were timid, because they only stay on the feeder for a brief second. Now I realize that Chickadees are probably the boldest of birds. When I am loading the feeder, most of birds flew away, but I often see a chickadee or two munching away in a feeder nearby. They only seemed timid initially because they are so fast. they come in grab the seed and then run off. Unlike a lot of birds, they seem polite because they only take one seed at a time (though they make a lot of return trips).

I love how acrobatic they are, they easily zoom through the hoop. While I am not fond of their lord chirps, I am impressed by how loud they can be for such a tiny bird, so I salute you Chickadee, one the smallest yet one of the boldest birds.

Paul

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Comments (4)

marricgardens
16 years ago
We get chickadees at our feeder every day. It's neat to see a chickadee and a woodpecker at the suet feeder at the same time, one on each side. At first after we put out the feeder nothing came. Then the chickadees followed by a woodpecker and then finches. I've just started birdwatching/feeding, isn't it fun? Marg
chickadeemelrose
16 years ago
Paul, I totally agree with you (I guess that's why I am "chickadee melrose.") I love watching the chickadees too, and sometimes when I am filling a feeder they will come within a foot and watch me, unafraid, and often chirp as if to acknowledge someone is there. And they are indeed amazing the way they fly around. I have been photographing them lately and they are one of the most difficult to get a good picture of.

The black-capped chickadee is our state bird (Massachusetts) so I guess a lot of other people have admired them over time too.
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The goldfinches are going to eat me out of the house, the home goes to the rest of the birds. My son gave me last year a 3' finchfeeder with a spiral running down intstead of perches and lots of openings. That thing got so popular that I had to refill every two days with thistle feed. I finally switched to mixture of finch food and a couple of cups of thistle seed. Mourning doves and cardinals are usually the first visitors in the morning. Most days there are anywhere between 20 and 30 on the early morning shift, 3 pairs stay mosts of the day. The jays come through a little bit later and after the first feeding there are always a couple around to see if I might throw out a handful of peanunts. They then alert the rest of the bunch. Sparrows of all kinds and juncos, as well as rosy and house finches belong to the making the rounds crew. Less predictable are the visits from the grossbeaks and the buntings. The most sociable visitors, besides the squirrels, are the chickadees, nuthatches, titmice and the finally returned downies. The hairy, redbellied and redheaded woodpeckers are more alert to my movements. If I need entertainment, all I have to do is look or go outside.
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paulsiu
Original Author
16 years ago
A couple of cool items about the Black Capped Chickadee

* They are adapted to the cold. To conserve energy, they can lower their body temperature by 10 degrees when resting. There's even a species of Chickadee call Boreal Chickadee that live even further North.

* They cache food in several places and have good memory of where and when they cached it. This is so they can eat the food before it goes bad.

* Chickadee often arrive in small flocks which has a hierarchy.

* Studies have shown that they only eat about 20% of their food from the feeder. Taking away a feeder won't aversely affect them. In really cold climate, it will increase their survival rate.

* They are often harbinger of other birds to the bird feeder. They are good at finding food and other birds watch them.

* Their beaks are too small to crack a seed, they carry it to a branch and break it open by pecking on it.

* They are fairly bold and can be trained to eat out of your hand.
lisa11310
16 years ago
Try having a conversation with one! I have "talked " to one for nearly 10 minutes. If you listen to their daily activities you can learn their language. I can tell when they are happy, sending out a warning signal, mad at other birds etc. The more chic chics before the dee dee dee the happier the bird. Ok call me crazy! LOL

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