Black-capped Chickadee
Black-capped Chickadee Poecile atricapillus
[Sound]
DESCRIPTION:
Size: 5 inches (13 cm)
Abundance:• Common
Quick Identification:
• Black cap and bib
• White cheeks
• Buffy flanks
• Wing coverts and secondaries edged in white
Identification Tips:
• Short bill
• Black crown and throat
• White face
• Pale gray upperparts
• White edges to wing coverts
• Grayish-white underparts
• Rusty flanks
• Sexes similar
• Often found in small flocks
Similar species:
The Black-capped Chickadee is very similar to the Carolina Chickadee and where their
ranges overlap they can be difficult to separate. In fact, they have trouble telling
themselves apart and hybrids occur. The most obvious difference between them is their
songs. Black-capped sings a two note song while Carolina sings a four note song. Hybrids
sing a three note song. Outsided of the breeding season, when chickadees don't sing much,
the Black-capped is slightly larger, has more white edging in the wing and has slower,
lower-pitched calls. Boreal and Chestnut-backed Chickadees have more brown in their
plumages than the Black-capped.
HABITAT:
Mixed deciduous-coniferous forests, woodland edges, clearings, fields, thickets, orchards,
suburbs. Often seen foraging in low branches of trees. Will come to feeders.
NESTING & FEEDING:
BREEDING: Deciduous or mixed deciduous-coniferous woodland, riparian woodland, thickets,
parks. 1 brood. Mating system is monogamous.
DISPLAYS: Courtship: simple pursuit of female by male.
NEST: Excavate or enlarge cavity 4 to 8 feet above the ground (ocassionally to 40 feet);
rarely in coniferous; lined with plant down, moss, feathers, hair, insect cocoons. Require
10- 14 days to excavate and line cavity. Both sexes help with nest construction.
EGGS: 6-8 White, finely marked with reddish-browns. 0.6" (16 mm).
CHICK DEVELOPMENT: Both sexes incubate. Incubation takes 11-13 days. Development is
altricial (immobile, downless, eyes closed, fed). Young leave the nest after 14-18 days.
Both sexes tend young.
DIET: Insects, conifer seeds, fruit and spiders and their eggs.
CONSERVATION: Winter resident. Rare cowbird host. Will use nest boxes.
NOTES: Excavated material from nest carried from vicinity and scattered. Male feeds female
during incubation. If disturbed on nest, female makes explosive snake-like hiss. After
cavity is lined and throughout incubation, female roosts in nest. Fledglings stay with
parents about 3 weeks then disperse to future breeding areas; extent of spring dispersal
may vary regionally. In winter, forage and roost in stable flocks of up to 12; flocks
include a few young low-ranked birds that lack pair bonds and often switch flocks. Dense
conifers and empty nests used as winter roosts; occasionally join in mixed flocks.
Hybridizes with Carolina Chickadee in parts of contact zone between New Jersey and Kansas.
WORLD RANGE:
BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE. Forest, woods, tall thickets, towns. From w,c Alaska, ec,s Yukon,
sw Mackenzie, n Saskatchewan and c Manitoba e across s Canada to s Quebec, Anticosti
Island and Newfoundland, s to s Alaska w to Alaskan Pen. and Shumagin and Kodiak islands,
s to s Oregon, nw Calif., e Nevada, nw,se Utah, n New Mexico, Kansas, nw Oklahoma, c
Missouri and c Illinois e to Pennsylvania, n New Jersey and se New York; in the
Appalachians at higher elevations to e Tennessee and w N. Carolina.
