Avian Explorer » chickadee

Black-capped Chickadees

Elizabeth — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:53:39 +0000

We have a lot of Black-capped Chickadees in Salt Lake City. So many birds have left already with the fall migration, but the chickadees stay all winter.

There are just enough trees in my neighborhood to support a ton of chickadees. And they are very brave.

I can get within a foot of the chickadees when they’re on the feeder. They will also hide in the grape leaves while I add more seed to the feeder instead of flying to safety on a nearby tree.

They will have whole conversations with me where I say “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” and they respond.

A couple weeks ago I went to a street fair at 9th and 9th in Sugarhouse and one of the booths had people selling necklaces. They took pictures from magazines and made them into pendants. This one was from an Audubon painting.

For awhile I was trying to not be that person, you know the one who is obsessed with a pet? The equivalent of a cat lady? But these pictures are so cute, I had to buy the necklace (or maybe five necklaces). I’ve embraced the bird lady moniker, at least for a little while.

Carolina Chickadees

Elizabeth — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 18:40:50 +0000

There are a lot of chickadees in the United States. In my limited experience, the Black-Capped Chickadees are everywhere. Here is a very scruffy looking Black-Capped Chickadee from last spring.

This is a Chestnut-Backed Chickadee. I think you can see why they have that name. They’re pretty easy to identify. This picture was taken in California.

During my trip to the east coast, I saw a Carolina Chickadee. They look the same as the Black-Capped Chickadees.

It’s only with DNA evidence that they have confirmed a difference. So the Carolina Chickadees may not look interesting, but at least it was another lifer.

Their song is different, though. Black-Capped Chickadees really do go “chick-a-dee-dee-dee.” The Carolina Chickadees don’t.

Black-Capped Chickadee

Elizabeth — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 04:41:27 +0000

The birdfeeder experiment is going well.

We have black-capped chickadees! You all know about my love of chickadees.

The Chestnut-Backed Chickadees make little chirping noises that are very cute. But these Black-Capped Chickadees go “chick-a-dee-dee-dee”! They’re so precious.

You can see that at the top of the feeder, I’ve been adding the cockatiel food. Since my guys are picky eaters, I figure I can recycle the food by putting it in the feeders. It’s always so funny to see outdoor birds enjoying brightly colored pellets.

This group of chickadees came in a swirl of feathers to eat at the feeder. I haven’t seen them since that one day, but I hope they come back.

I’ve seen plenty of chickadees while birding, though, so if they don’t come back all is not lost.

Chestnut-Backed Chickadees

Elizabeth — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:31:00 +0000

California has a few signs of fall. Some leaves fall, some leaves change color.

The lighting outside has been beautiful lately. I was really excited about capturing this old wasp nest.

Wherever there are big trees, there are chickadees. We have several types of chickadees. There are Black-Capped Chickadees like this guy:

But my favorite is the Chestnut-Backed Chickadee. They’re incredibly small (4 1/2 inches) and fast. For awhile, my pictures all looked like this:

But eventually I succeeded!

If you stare at a tree long enough, you’ll see them. They love to eat.

And hang upside down.

It’s hardest to get pictures of their front. If you can, though, it’s worth it. They have very fuzzy fronts.

As you can see from comparing the Chestnut-Backed Chickadee with the Black-Capped Chickadee, the faces look identical. The Chestnut-Backed Chickadee has a lot of brown on his back. The Black-Capped has merely a hint of brown on his front.

I know I say this practically every week, but these birds are one of my favorites.

Babies!!!

Elizabeth — Sun, 17 May 2009 22:59:00 +0000

I went to the marine preserve this weekend, and the place was filled with babies!!! I found a bush filled with baby flycatchers and sat taking pictures of them for 30 minutes. I finally captured some good pictures.

This is a dusky flycatcher.

Below is a gray flycatcher. This baby was very curious and too young to know that I’m dangerous. He came within three feet of me. After a few minutes, his mother came by and fed him!!! I wasn’t sure if he was the same bird as the one above, because they came out of the same bush, and the lighting was different. But if you look at the beak, the bird in the picture on top has a beak that is curved at the tip.
This guy looks to be a baby flycatcher as well. I think he’s younger than the others because he’s incredibly puffy. But the barbs on the wings and the beak suggest that he’s a gray flycatcher. He was in another bush, just preening.

In this picture, the baby chickadee is on the bottom and the parent is on top. It’s not a great picture, but I like it because the baby looks so huge with all the puffy feathers and the big warm belly. Baby chickadees make a remarkable amount of noise. The entire tree was filled with baby chickadees. The whole town seems to be covered in baby chickadees. These were taken yesterday and today, I was standing outside in the middle of errands and noticed that all the trees had baby chickadees making racket and flying around.

Spring is the best time of year!

Chickdees

Elizabeth — Sun, 10 May 2009 20:43:00 +0000

Things have been very hectic, lately, so I haven’t been able to take as many pictures. Last week it also rained the entire weekend, which caused the plants to turn a lovely shade of bright green, but prevented me from going birding.

The cockatiels are doing well. Yesterday I put the nest boxes on the bed and each bird explored them thoroughly. Conner is still confused about the function of the nest box. After Audrey was settled inside his nest box, Conner would peek in at him to see what he was doing. There were several times where Conner became frustrated and starting shrieking, as if to say, “I don’t get it!!!” Conner has chewed his nest box to the point where there is only about an inch of material holding the top together. We’ll have to watch it carefully to ensure the structural integrity of the box. I’d hate for it to collapse with Conner on top.

One of the things that I love about California, is the variety of birds. I’ve been visiting the same area every weekend for the past few months and each time I see a different type of bird! Last time I saw quails. I didn’t get any pictures, but I know where the quails live, so eventually I’ll photograph them.

We have several different kinds of chickadees in this part of California. This guy is a chestnut-backed chickadees; a name that is pretty self explanatory.

We also have black-capped chickadees and mountain chickadees. This guy was very

comfortable around me. At one point, he was only a few feet away from me. I got a picture, but it’s pretty blurry because of some branches.

I like this picture because the chickadee has food in his mouth.

And I always like capturing bird butts. They’re so fuzzy!!!