Profiles in Plumage: Chickadees

My awesome young neighbor Rebecca recently gave me a book about attracting birds to your backyard. Inspired by her gift, this will be the first in a series of portraits of our feathered friends and how we can make them feel welcome.

There are many reasons to feature chickadees in the inaugural “profiles in plumage” article. But the main one is that my dad – a WWII vet whose emotional vocabulary was, um, economical – used to call my sister and me his “little chickadees.” Even as small children, we sensed the weight that endearment carried. I’ve been fond of birds in the Poecile genus ever since. Besides, they’re cute as buttons!

"Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus )" by Beth Fishkind is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Basics: There’s a chickadee species for just about every part of North America, including black-capped, Carolina, chestnut-backed, boreal, gray-headed, and mountain. They’re all about 4 to 5 inches long, with dark caps and bibs surrounding white cheeks, and a distinctively spherical body shape. (That there's the cute factor.) They’re inquisitive and acrobatic.

Music: The chickadee call, which is used to stay in contact, announce a food discovery, and scold predators, sounds like -- you guessed it! -- chicka-dee-dee-dee. The bigger the threat, the more dee-dee-dees on the end. The males also have a mating song, typically a three- or four-note whistle. The black-capped version of the song sounds a bit like, “hey, sweetie!” Visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website to hear recordings.

Habitat: Chickadees hang out in forests, parks, and suburban and urban yards with tall trees. They like to nest in tree trunks or snags, typically natural cavities in dead wood or abandoned woodpecker holes. They’ll often enlarge and redecorate the interior, using bark strips, moss, plant down and animal hair.

"black-capped chickadee excavating nest hole" by Andrew Reding is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Diet: Chickadees eat mostly insects, supplemented by seeds and berries in the winter. Their summer diet is mostly caterpillars, along with some moths, spiders, beetles, wasp larvae, aphids, snails and other invertebrates.

"Carolina Chickadee - nesting box-1" by Deb Breton is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

I used to assume green space was green space when it came to animal habitat: if I planted whatever my local garden center was selling, I was doing my part for the environment. Turns out, the quality of the plants – namely, whether they’re indigenous or not – is more important than the quantity, because only the native ones support insects.

A 2018 study monitored reproduction and survival of Carolina chickadees (Poecile carolinensis) within residential yards in and around Washington, DC. It found that populations could be sustained only if native plants made up 70 percent or more of plant biomass. Below that amount, the chickadees had to switch their diets to less nutritious options and produce fewer offspring, or forgo reproduction altogether. For a pair of chickadees to produce three healthy fledglings, they must supply the babies with 390 - 570 insects per day for 16 days. You do the math; it’s exhausting! But it clarifies why the proximity and density of those insect-supporting native plants is so critical.

“Given that the majority of terrestrial birds rely on insects as a primary food source for reproduction and survival, the persistence of insectivorous bird populations is inextricably linked to insect conservation,” say the authors. “...the widespread preference for nonnative plants in the horticultural industry has globally transformed millions of acres from potential habitat into ‘food deserts’ for native insects, with the unintentional consequence of reducing the abundance and distribution of birds as well.”

Carolina chickadees are considered a species of “low conservation concern” relative to other species. But “low concern” still means a population decline of 16 percent between 1966 and 2019. Fortunately, you and I have the power to help reverse that loss.

What Can We Do to Make Chickadees Feel at Home in Our Yards?

Bird feeders are fine, but far from sufficient. What chickadees really need are suitable habitat and plentiful insects.

• Plant native trees, particularly keystone species that host lots of caterpillar larvae, such as oaks, cherries, birches, hickories, poplars, willows, maples and alders.

• Allow some logs and snags to decompose to provide nesting opportunities.

• Leave leaf litter on the ground. It's winter habitat for many insects and larvae.

• Plant native shrubs and perennials for their ability to host larvae and provide berries and seeds.

• Provide clean water.

• Avoid using pesticides. They wipe out the birds' pantries.

• Keep cats indoors.

I hope your holidays are full of a) chickadee sightings and b) the cheer of family and friends. Speaking of celebrations and cherubic, jaunty creatures...

The Bees’ Knees will be on a lighter publication schedule over the next couple of weeks, but back in full force in the new year. Meanwhile, stay tuned for a Big Bees’ Knees Announcement in early January! (Spoiler alert: there will be no trading cards involved.)

---

Resources

Desirée L. Narango, Douglas W. Tallamy, and Peter P. Marra, “Nonnative Plants Reduce Population Growth of an Insectivorous Bird,” PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), October 22, 2018.

Sally Roth, Attracting Birds to Your Backyard, Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA, 1998.

Maureen Sundberg, “A Chickadee’s guide to Gardening: How to Create Habitat for Birds in Urban Settings,” Ecological Landscape Alliance, October 15, 2019.

“All About Birds: Chickadees,” The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

“New Smithsonian Study Links Declines in Suburban Backyard Birds to Presence of Nonnative Plants,” Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, October 22, 2018.

“Voices and Vocabularies: Clever Chickadees,” BirdNote, March 21, 2021.