This week’s Bird of the Week, compliments of the Weminuche Audubon Society and Audubon Rockies, is the mountain chickadee.
In winter, it’s common for small birds of various species to flock collectively as an support in finding meals and avoiding hazard. Often when a predator like a pygmy owl, sharp-shinned hawk or home cat exhibits up, it’s the chickadee who sounds the alarm to maintain flock members on guard.
Mountain chickadees are birds of the dry, evergreen forests of Western mountainous areas. Except throughout nesting season once they use cavities in aspen bushes, they extra typically inhabit coniferous than deciduous woods. In summer season they’re discovered climbing and hanging the other way up in conifers, selecting off spiders and a wide range of bugs, together with harmful ones like bark beetles.
In winter they depend on seeds, berries and a few fruits and rely upon seed caching to outlive occasions when meals is scarce. Shivering to generate physique warmth is one in every of their diversifications to get via chilly winter nights. Especially on the finish of the day, they want a supply of fats energy to gasoline this exercise.
Where their ranges overlap, mountain chickadees are sometimes discovered with their shut cousins, black-capped chickadees. Mountain chickadees are grayish total with white cheeks and black cap and throat. A skinny white eyebrow distinguishes them for the same, however extra colourful, black-capped, whose flanks are buff-colored.
Mountain chickadees are widespread feeder birds who can change into fairly tame round folks. One will seize a sunflower seed and fly off to shell it by holding it between its toes and hammering it aside with its beak. They spend so little time on the feeder that it’s laborious to inform if there’s one chook making repeated journeys or a number of hiding out within the bushes.
They may even eat suet and contemplate meal worms an actual deal with.
Feederwatch.org, the web site of Project Feederwatch, operated by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada, is a wealth of knowledge on including pleasure to your life and contributing to science by feeding and observing birds.
For data on occasions go to, www.weminucheaudubon.org and www.fb.com/weminucheaudubon/.
Photo courtesy Charles Martinez
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