Black-Capped Chickadee

Scientific Name: Parus atricapillus

Diet: Black-Capped Chickadees eat berries, bugs, suet, and seeds, especially sunflower seeds in feeders.

Behavior: The Black-Capped Chickadee is an active, curios, and beautiful bird. You can watch them hop, jump, and scurry along in trees as they hunt for insects to eat. They are very acrobatic and they often hang upside-down when foraging.

Habitat: You can find the Black-Capped Chickadee at forest edges of deciduous or mixed woodlands. If you put a feeder outside you will soon be able to find them in your own backyard! The Black-Capped Chickadee is common across much of northern north America, and fairly easy to attract with a feeder.

Sound: The Black-Capped Chickadee’s most common call is a gruff chick-a-dee-dee-dee!, this chickadee also makes a high whistled note sounding something like fee-bee.

Nesting: Nesting occurs from April to July. The female picks out the site — a nest box,  natural cavity, or abandoned Downy Woodpecker hole. These chickadees also often excavate their own cavities. Incubation lasts for 12-13 days. The eggs are white with fine red-brown spots, and when the chicks first hatch they are naked except for 6 small spots of down on the head and back. The clutch has 1-13 eggs.

Description/field marks: Black-Capped Chickadees are brownish gray on the back, tail, and wings, and have beige flanks. The underside is white, and, as the name suggests, Black-Capped Chickadees have black caps. Black-Capped Chickadees also a have  black throats, and the cheeks are white.

How to attract: To attract Black-Capped Chickadees put out seed and suet feeders. Black-Capped Chickadees will take sunflower seeds, peanut butter, and peanuts. Black-Capped Chickadees will also come to a mealworm feeder.

Black-Capped Chickadee