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Wild Bird Feeders,
Bird Houses,
Bird Baths and more
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Boreal Chickadee
Description: Boreal Chickadees are small, hardy, acrobatic flyers, with black throats and brown caps. hey are specialists of the far-northern or high-altitude boreal spruce-fir forest. Especially stands dominated by Engleman Spruce at elevations of 5,500 feet and above.
Other Names: Brown-Capped Chickadee, Hudsonian and Acadian Chickadee, Tom-tit, Chick Chick and Fillady.
Color: Both male and female Boreal Chickadees have short wings, short bills and a fluffy, rounded appearance. They are gray-brown above and whitish below with white cheeks, a black bib and brown sides and flanks. They are distinguished from the Black-Capped Chickadee by the brown rather than black cap, less white on their cheeks and smaller black throat patches than the Black-Capped.
Sound: The Boreal Chickadee’s call is a scratchy “chick-a-dee-dee,” a variant on the call which gives Chickadees their name.
Preferred Environment: Boreal Chickadees Inhabit high-altitude boreal spruce forests using both young and mature forests.
Nesting Habits: Monogamous cavity-nesters, Boreal Chickadees build their nests in tree cavities. Their nests are lined with moss, fur, plant down, inner bark or lichen. Both males and females excavate the nest (if an abandoned Woodpecker of Flicker excavation isn't used), but only the female builds the nest.
Food Preference: In nature, insects (including pupae and eggs), spiders, and seeds make up the majority of these omnivores' diets. During the breeding season they eat many caterpillars and other animal matter.At feeders, they feed on sunflower, safflower and shelled peanuts.
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How to Attract Boreal Chickadees
These cute, curious little birds keep us company through the winter. BorealChickadees 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 and almost entirely in the boreal forests, 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 Boreal Chickadees Feeders |
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