The peanut feeder is one of the chickadees' favorites here.
I put out shelled peanuts - and they swoop in, take a peanut, and carry it off to eat or stash elsewhere for future meals. The tufted titmice here do the same.

Do you put out peanuts still in the shell? I haven't done that yet but I have heard that bluejays absolutely love them.

a neighbor of mine grew a bunch of the striped large sunflowers and gave me a couple heads this fall. I have put out a handfull everyday and like others i thought the jays or bigger birds would love them. but the chickadees carry them off before the others can get to them. One litle chickadees here is disticctive in that it has a black spot on its belly and it comes and goes with seeds and sunflowers and rolled oats all day long and must have a tremendous stash unless some others raid his stash.

chicadeemelrose: I bought shelled peanuts. Now that I know the chickadees like them, I will have to get more as I'm nearly out. I don't think I've ever seen a titmouse here. I'll have to keep an eye out for it this summer.

dklucius: I was going to grow some of the tall sunflowers along the fence this summer and then leave them up for the winter. I realize I'm going to have to tie them to the fence but I think the birds will love it.

i put the striped sunflower seeds in a mesh bag that i got oranges in at the grocery store and hang it from a branch and the chickadees flock to it

Chicadee's are really amazing little birds.

I have put out bird feeders all my life and enjoyed casually watching the birds. Prior to last November I simply lumped all Chicadee's into one category in the same way most people do Sparrows until one day I realized that some Chickadees had a white belly while others had a yellowish brown patch on their flanks below the wings. Out of curiosity I looked in a bird book and learned that I was seeing both Black Capped Chickadee's and Carolina Chickadees.

At the time I had 5 Pentax 35mm SLR's and an assortment of 11 lenses, but being on fixed income I couldn't afford more that 10 ot 12 rolls of film a month. In mid October I happened to find a used Pentax *ist DL DSLR body on Craigslist for $200, It had no lenses but all the Pentax k mount lenses that I had for my film cameras were compatible with it. Suddenly film and processing cost was no longer an issue and I began shooting upwards of 500 shots a day. While the outdoor temps were still relatively mild I put the camera on a tripod about 20 feet from the bird feeder then I say motionless in a lawn chair and triggered the camera by means of an external shutter release cable, which I held concealed in my pocket.

The first week or so that I did that the Chickadees seemed to get bolder and bolder as they flew towards me, sometimes landing on weed tops about 2 feet from my chair. Then they started landing on my camera and one time a bird actually landed on my head while I sat there.

I figured by that time the chickadee's were accustomed to my presence so I decided to take it to the next step. I have to fill my feeder at least twice a day and every time I approach to fill it all the birds fly away. I noticed that while the other birds seemed to fly off, the Chicadee's were only going up on low limbs in the tree about 20ft away and I could hear them chirping back and forth to each other, so I thought, I wonder what would happen if I talk to them?

Now every time I approach the feeder I call out in a low voice, Chick a dee dee dee, Chick a dee dee dee, and they seem to call right back and as I am pouring the seed in the feeder they were coming closer and closer. Now some of them came right down and sit on the feeder while I am still pouring the seed. I use a two quart plastic pitcher to carry the seed and on more than one occasion I have had Chickadees land on the pitcher and grab a seed before I get a chance to pour it. I can stand right beside the feeder for 10 or 15 minutes and the Chickadees come and go without the least bit of concern about me.

One of my birds books says that Chickadees can be tamed and they have a photo of a Chickadee eating seed right out of a gays hand, That is currently my goal, to feed one out of my hand.

While doing some further research in my bird books I ran across a couple very interesting facts.

Back in the late 1800's people trapped Chickadees and sold them as cage bird pets.

I think the fact that I found singularly most remarkable was how they survive in winter. The normal body temperature of a bird is about 100deg F but in order to conserve energy while sleeping Chickadees can actually lower their body temperature 50 deg F.

likr lazypup i fill my feeders twice a day.I have both mountain chickadees and blackcaps chickadees I can't get any kind of numbers because they are coming and going continually. I fill my feeders with a plastic cup and a tiupperware bowl of feed. They are so used to me that they land in the tupperware bowl or the cup while i'm standing there on the step ladder holding the stuff. one particular mountain chickadee wants boss or striped sunflowers and takes them out of the cup while i'm holding it. He sat on a branch yesterday about 3 inches from my face holding sunflower seed between his feet and pecking it open as i watched. Last fall i posted some pictures here of the chickadees holding a point and shoot camera in one hand and a cup of seed in the other from inches away as they flew in and out of the cup and bowl as i held the cup

Marric - I've grown the Mammoth Grey Stripe sunflowers for the past 3 years. Many different kinds of birds plus the squirrels and chipmunks love the seeds. They eat the ripe seeds in a matter of weeks, and they don't last until the winter. I suppose you could cover the heads somehow. I would love to grow lots of Sunflowers, but sometimes the seedlings get nipped by critters or pests, and there isn't enough sun here in my yard - enough to grow a few veggies, and a few Sunflowers.

The Chickadees are one of the reasons I got interested in the birds. I've gardened for 20 years, always had a bird bath in the garden, but the birds were pretty much part of the background of the yard. Then about 5 years ago I noticed the Chickadees - who I swear would sometimes visit me while gardening, dee-dee-deeing at me as if they were curious what I was doing.

Such endearing little birds!

Most of the Chickadees I see are Chestnut-backed Chickadees.

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