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Home > Black-Capped Chickadee
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Black-Capped Chickadee
Description: A frequent visitor to backyard feeders, the Black-Capped Chickadee is one of the most loved birds in North America. It breeds across the southern two-thirds of Canada and northern two-thirds of the United States, farther south in mountains. Some Black-Capped Chickadees head farther south in winter.
Other Names: Black-Capped Tit, Mésange à tête noire (French)
Color: Adult males and females have a black cap and bib with white cheeks. Their under parts are white with rusty brown on the flanks and their back is gray. They have a short, dark bill, short wings and a long tail.
Sound: The Black-Capped Chickadee makes two or three notes whistled, with the first higher in pitch and the song sounds like "chick-a-dee-dee."
Preferred Environment: The Black-Capped Chickadee prefers deciduous and mixed deciduous and coniferous woodlands, open woods and parks, willow thickets and cottonwood groves. It also favors old fields, suburban areas and forest edges.
Nesting Habits: The Black-Capped Chickadee uses coarse materials such as moss for its nest, lining it with softer materials like fur. Their nesting season is from April through June. They nest in holes, typically in dead trees or rotten branches and will use woodpecker nest boxes.
Food Preference: Naturally, their diet consists of insects and their larvae, seeds and berries. In feeders, safflower, black oil sunflower, niger (thistle) seed and suet work best.
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How to Attract Black-Capped Chickadees
These cute, curious little birds keep us company through the winter. Black-capped Chickadees have greatly benefited from food and nest boxes provided by humans as well as increased forest edges caused by deforestation. We need to be careful, however, because too much could reduce or eliminate natural nest sites.
Unlike other species birds that winter over in harsher climates, chickadees don't have a crop for storing food, so they must eat small meals, digest them, then eat again. Because they only feed in daylight, they have to eat as much as they can as fast as they can, especially during the short winter days. Use hopper, tube & platform feeders but be sure to offer a supply of suet in your suet feeders.
Attracting them in winter is as simple as setting up a bird feeder but, be sure to offer them ice free water (a lack of water is worse than a lack of food). In spring, a bird house constructed for this cavity nesting bird will greatly increase your chances of watching these birds as they go about their nesting and mating habits.
Suggested Black-Capped Chickadee Feeders
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