Carolina Chickadee

Carolina Chickadee
Poecile carolinensis
Order - Passeriformes; Family - Paridae

The chickadee was given its common name, because of its warning call, by the famous illustrator of North American birds, John James Audubon.

Among small songbirds, the chickadee's black cap and bib, white cheeks, gray back, wings, and tail, and whitish undersides with buffy flanks are distinctive. The Carolina Chickadee, on the other hand, is difficult to distinguish on sight from the Black-capped Chickadee, but rarely if ever occurs in Northern Virginia.

The common Carolina species has a higher four-note song, sounding like "fee-bee, fee-bay", while the other species sings a lower two-note one. Both birds use the "chick-a-dee-dee" call, often in warning, and the length of the call may indicate the level of threat the bird feels.

As its name suggests, the Carolina Chickadee is an inhabitant of the warmer parts of eastern North America, from Kansas City, Chicago and New York City south into Texas and Florida. It can be found in lowland forests, woodlands, suburbs, and city parks - almost anywhere there are large trees.

Normally it feeds on insects, spiders, seeds and berries that it finds on those trees, often hanging upside down from a branch to pluck its food. Chickadees also come readily to feeders, particularly in winter, when they join with other small birds such as titmice, nuthatches and kinglets, to forage in groups. The chickadee will not stay at the feeder, though, but fly to a nearby branch and eat the seed or nut there by itself.

Carolina Chickadees are year-round residents, and pairs may remain together for several years. They sleep or shelter from the cold in small cavities they find in trees, such as former Downy Woodpecker holes, or that that they dig in dead trees.

Both birds excavate the hole, usually in a place selected by the female, and half a dozen or so small white eggs are laid in a nest of moss and hair. They will also use nest boxes. In areas where their ranges overlap, the Carolina Chickadee will mate with the Black-capped Chickadee, which inhabits northern forests and the Appalachian Mountains south into the Carolinas.

The Black-capped Chickadees, which may come down into the Virginia Piedmont in winter, can be distinguished most easily (when not singing) by the white edges on their tailfeathers and a more orange color on the sides. Hybrid birds produced by mixed matings, however, will confuse you, since their characteristics, including their song, are halfway between those of the two species!