The black-capped chickadee (''Poecile atricapillus'') is a small, non-migratory, North American
songbird
A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 500 ...
that lives in deciduous and mixed forests. It is a
passerine
A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...
bird in the tit
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
, the
Paridae
The tits, chickadees, and Titmouse, titmice constitute the Paridae, a large family of small passerine birds which occur mainly in the Northern Hemisphere and Africa. Most were formerly classified in the genus ''Parus''.
Members of this family a ...
. It is the state bird of
and
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
in the United States, and the provincial bird of
New Brunswick
New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
in Canada. It is well known for its ability to lower its body temperature during cold winter nights, its good spatial memory to relocate the caches where it stores food, and its boldness near humans (sometimes feeding from the hand).
Taxonomy
In 1760, French zoologist
Mathurin Jacques Brisson
Mathurin Jacques Brisson (; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosopher.
Brisson was born at Fontenay-le-Comte. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history; his published works ...
included a description of the black-capped chickadee in his ''Ornithologie'' based on a specimen collected in Canada. He used the French name and the Latin ''Parus Canadensis Atricapillus''.
[ The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen.] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the
binomial system and are not recognised by the
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries.
Orga ...
.
When in 1766, Swedish naturalist
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
updated his ''
Systema Naturae
' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...
'' for the
12th edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson.
[ One of these was the black-capped chickadee. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the ]binomial name
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
''Parus atricapillus'' and cited Brisson's work. The type location was subsequently restricted to the site of Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
in Canada. The specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
''atricapillus'' is Latin for 'black-haired' from 'black' and 'hair of the head'.
Though originally placed in the genus ''Parus
''Parus'' is a genus of Old World birds in the tit family. It was formerly a large genus containing most of the 50 odd species in the family Paridae. The genus was split into several resurrected genera following the publication of a detailed mo ...
'' with most other tits, mtDNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA ...
cytochrome b
Cytochrome b within both molecular and cell biology, is a protein found in the mitochondria of eukaryotic cells. It functions as part of the electron transport chain and is the main subunit of transmembrane cytochrome bc1 and b6f complexes.
F ...
sequence
In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is calle ...
data and morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
* Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
* Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
suggest that separating ''Poecile'' more adequately expresses these birds' relationships. The genus ''Poecile'' had been introduced by German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup
Johann Jakob von Kaup (10 April 1803 – 4 July 1873) was a German naturalist. A proponent of natural philosophy, he believed in an innate mathematical order in nature and he attempted biological classifications based on the Quinarian system. Kaup ...
in 1829. Molecular phylogenetic
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...
studies have shown that the black-capped chickadee is sister
A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...
to the mountain chickadee
The mountain chickadee (''Poecile gambeli'') is a small songbird, a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.
Taxonomy
The specific name honors naturalist William Gambel. The mountain chickadee was formerly placed in the genus ''Parus'' with ...
(''Poecile gambeli'').
At one time, the black-capped chickadee was considered by some to be conspecific with the willow tit
The willow tit (''Poecile montanus'') is a passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and across the Palearctic. The plumage is grey-brown and off-white w ...
of Eurasia, due to their very similar appearance. This is reflected in an older version of the ''Peterson Field Guide'' for the Birds of Britain and Europe, which states "N Am. Black-Capped Chickadee" as an alternate name for the willow tit. In fact, the willow tit, black-capped chickadee, marsh tit, and Carolina chickadee are all very similar to one another in appearance. Nine subspecies are recognised.
The chickadee was known as by the Penobscot
The Penobscot (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewi'') are an Indigenous people in North America from the Northeastern Woodlands region. They are organized as a federally recognized tribe in Maine and as a First Nations band government in the Atlantic pr ...
people speaking the Abenaki language
Abenaki (''Eastern: Alənαpαtəwéwαkan, Western: Alnôbaôdwawôgan'') is an endangered Algonquian language of Quebec and the northern states of New England. The language has Eastern and Western forms which differ in vocabulary and phonolog ...
.
Description
The black-capped chickadee has a black cap and "bib" with white sides to the face. Its underparts are white with rusty brown on the flanks. Its back is gray and the tail is normally slate gray. This bird has a short dark beak of , short, rounded wings , a tarsus of , and a long tail at . Its total body length is , wingspan is , and body mass is . Sexes look alike, but males are slightly larger and longer than females.
Although range can generally be used to separate them, the black-capped chickadee is very similar in appearance to the Carolina chickadee
The Carolina chickadee (''Poecile carolinensis'') is a small passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.
Taxonomy
The Carolina chickadee is often placed in the genus ''Parus'' with most other tits, but mtDNA cytochrome ''b'' sequence data an ...
. The black-capped is larger on average, but this cannot be used reliably for identification. The most obvious difference between the two is in the wing feathers. In the black-capped chickadee, the wing feathers have white edges that are larger and more conspicuous than those of the Carolina chickadee. The latter is often mistaken for black-capped chickadees with feather dystrophy, which sometimes affects the appearance of the primary feathers making them look slimmer, a phenomenon caused by illnesses such as fatty liver
Fatty liver disease (FLD), also known as hepatic steatosis, is a condition where excess fat builds up in the liver. Often there are no or few symptoms. Occasionally there may be tiredness or pain in the upper right side of the abdomen. Complicat ...
disease in malnourished birds. Overall, the Carolina appears slightly paler colored, whereas the flanks of the black-capped can appear to have a trace of off-yellow or rusty coloration. Also, the black-capped generally has a more "ragged" looking black bib, whereas the bib of the Carolina has a more smooth-edged look. These subtle features are often even more vague in populations around where the black-capped and Carolina overlap in range (possibly the result of hybrids) and the two cannot always be distinguished as two species. The two species were formerly thought to be easily distinguished by call, but they often learn each other's vocalizations where their ranges overlap (their point of overlap is a narrow band that runs along the east-central United States, with the black-capped chickadee to the north). A bird located near the zone of overlap that sings both songs, or sings "odd-sounding" songs, cannot be positively identified solely by voice in the field.
Vocalization
The vocalizations of the black-capped chickadee are highly complex. Thirteen distinct types of vocalizations have been classified, many of which are complex and can communicate different types of information. Chickadees' complex vocalizations are likely an evolutionary adaptation to their habitat: they live and feed in dense vegetation, and even when the flock is close together, individual birds tend to be out of each other's visual range.
One of the most recognizable sounds produced, particularly by the males, is the two-note ''fee-bee'' song. It is a simple, clear whistle of two notes, identical in rhythm, the first roughly a whole-step above the second. The range of frequencies at which this song starts from varies; the complete frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from ''angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is eq ...
range spans roughly 1 kHz. Within this range, male chickadees can sing at various tones. The average starting frequency is around 4000 Hz. A decrease of roughly 200 Hz occurs when the first note (''fee'') is sung, and then another decrease around 400 Hz takes place between the end of ''fee'' and the beginning of ''bee''. In spite of these multiple changes in frequency, though, anybody listening to the song only hears a pure, high-frequency tone. This is distinguished from the Carolina chickadee's four-note call ''fee-bee fee-bay''; the lower notes are nearly identical but the higher ''fee'' notes are omitted, making the black-capped song like ''bee bay''. The males sing the song only in relative isolation from other chickadees (including their mates). In late summer, some young birds sing only a single note.
A recent study found that female ''fee-bee'' songs have both similarities with and differences from male ''fee-bee'' songs. Both sexes sometimes make a faint version of the song, and this appears to be used when feeding young. When males are out in the wild, they sing this song to defend their territory or attract a mate. It is rare, but a few accounts have been given of females singing a louder version of the ''fee-bee'' song when out alone in the wild, too. The black-capped chickadee is a monomorphic species, so distinguishing males and females based solely on their singing is difficult. A bioacoustic analysis performed on both male and female songs revealed that male ''fee-bee'' singing fluctuates more, and the absolute amplitude
The amplitude of a periodic variable is a measure of its change in a single period (such as time or spatial period). The amplitude of a non-periodic signal is its magnitude compared with a reference value. There are various definitions of amplit ...
of both sexes is the same. The ''fee'' glissando
In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a glide from one pitch to another (). It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In some contexts, it is distinguished from the co ...
varies far more in females, which makes identifying each sex easier. The purpose of the female ''fee-bee'' song is unknown.
The most familiar call is the ''chick-a-dee-dee-dee'', which gave this bird its name. This simple-sounding call is astonishingly complex. Scientists have been studying it since the mid-1970s. It is produced by both males and females year-round. It has been observed to consist of up to four distinct units which can be arranged in different patterns to communicate information about threats from predators and coordination of group movement: A, B, C, and D. These four notes only ever appear in this consecutive order with each preceding note blending into the next. Not all four notes may appear in the call, though. Like other sounds the chickadee produces, it may be heard in multiple variations. The A and B notes are almost identical to one another in both frequency and duration. The black-capped chickadee possesses the ability to quickly notice the difference between these two notes. As for the C and D notes, no real similarity is seen between them. The C note fluctuates from low to high then back to low, whereas the D note has a constant frequency. While not confirmed, one study found evidence of a function behind the C and D notes. To be able to recognize the difference between a member of the same species and a potential predator, the D note is required. The C note is needed to locate food.
Neither individual notes nor groups of notes have an equal probability of appearing in the ''chick-a-dee-dee'' song. Its syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...
form may take on several different structures, but the two most commonly heard are D] and C] (The brackets are placed around each note to show that it may be repeated more than once.) Any calls that contain the D note more frequently than others are more commonly heard. A recent study of the call showed that the number of ''dee''s indicates the level of threat from nearby predators. In an analysis of over 5,000 alarm calls from chickadees, alarm calls triggered by small, dangerous raptor
Raptor or RAPTOR may refer to:
Animals
The word "raptor" refers to several groups of bird-like dinosaurs which primarily capture and subdue/kill prey with their talons.
* Raptor (bird) or bird of prey, a bird that primarily hunts and feeds on ...
s had a shorter interval between ''chick'' and ''dee'' and tended to have extra ''dee''s, typically four instead of two. In one case, a warning call about a pygmy owl – a prime threat to chickadees – contained 23 ''dee''s. The Carolina chickadee makes a similar call, which is faster and higher-pitched.
These chickadees make a number of other calls and sounds, such as a ''gargle'' noise usually used by males to indicate a threat of attacking another male, often when feeding. This call is also used in sexual contexts. Black-capped chickadees develop the ''gargle'' noise as a result of learning that starts soon after birth and continues through to adulthood. This noise is among the most complex of the calls, containing two to 9 of 14 distinct notes in one population that was studied. It only lasts for about half a second. Social learning, in particular, is largely influential to the development of this sound. Beginning 30 to 35 days after birth, strings of low-amplitude precursor or sub-''gargles'' are produced for about a minute. At this time, the young have several close interactions with their family; they learn to produce such sounds by listening to their parents and siblings. Three chickadee populations were observed at three different sites over 8 years, and all of them produced vocalizations that were very similar to one another. Strings of juvenile sub-''gargles'' are almost perfectly continuous and both low and unstable in frequency, yet lacking multiple syllables. When their vocal abilities are fully developed, a stable frequency is produced and a variety of syllables is heard that vary in length.
Chickadees in an environment with ambient noise at the same frequencies as their songs have developed an evolutionary adaptation that enables them to adjust the frequency of their songs much quicker to effectively communicate with the surrounding population. The ''fee-bee'' songs of several male black-capped chickadees were monitored to identify their particular frequency. In one particular study, a series of both masking and nonmasking tones was played to multiple male chickadees at various locations to observe how they responded to interfering and noninterfering signals. When interacting with conspecifics close by, the males matched their frequencies, but when the surrounding environment was noisy with other species, the males adapted by increasing the frequency of their songs. The males responded quickly to the masking tones by raising their song frequencies. Another study, though, showed that male chickadees sometimes intentionally match the tones of competing conspecifics as a way of showing aggression. Dominant males in a population often compete with lower-ranked males; one is not at a greater or lesser advantage than the other. Singing contests are a way male chickadees decide who in a population gets to mate. When a male loses a contest, particularly a higher-ranking male in the population, he will often have difficulty finding a mate.
Behaviour and ecology
Diet and foraging
Insects (especially caterpillars) form a large part of their diet in summer. The birds hop along tree branches searching for food, sometimes hanging upside down or hovering; they may make short flights to catch insects in the air. Seeds and berries become more important in winter, though insect eggs and pupae remain on the menu. Black oil sunflower seeds
The sunflower seed is the seed of the sunflower (''Helianthus annuus''). There are three types of commonly used sunflower seeds: linoleic (most common), high oleic, and sunflower oil seeds. Each variety has its own unique levels of monounsatu ...
are readily taken from bird feeders. The birds take a seed in their beak and commonly fly from the feeder to a tree, where they proceed to hammer the seed on a branch to open it.
Like many other species in the family Paridae, black-capped chickadees commonly cache
Cache, caching, or caché may refer to:
Places United States
* Cache, Idaho, an unincorporated community
* Cache, Illinois, an unincorporated community
* Cache, Oklahoma, a city in Comanche County
* Cache, Utah, Cache County, Utah
* Cache County ...
food, mostly seeds, but sometimes insects, also. Items are stored singly in various sites such as bark, dead leaves, clusters of conifer needles, or knothole. Memory for the location of caches can last up to 28 days. Within the first 24 hours, the birds can even remember the relative quality of the stored items.
Foraging behaviour in the winter tends to decrease due to the changing weather. Such behaviour is largely influenced by wind and temperature. When wind speeds are higher, black-capped chickadees avoid exposure to such conditions by flying lower where vegetation offers a degree of protection, and when the temperature decreases, they search for food less frequently.
In parts of the black-capped chickadee's range with very cold winters, such as Minnesota, survival rates are affected by access to supplemental food. Chickadees with access to bird feeders are twice as likely to survive the winter than those without access to this supplemental food. This difference in survival rates occurs primarily during months with severe weather when the temperature drops below for more than five days. In Pennsylvania, with milder winters on the southern edge of their range, differences between populations with and without feeders suggest that feeders influence movements of chickadees rather than actual survival.
At bird feeders, black-capped chickadees tolerate human approach to a much greater degree than other species do. In fact, during the winter, many individuals accustomed to human habitation readily accept seed from a person's hand.
Metabolism
On cold winter nights, these birds can reduce their body temperature by as much as 12 °C (from their normal temperature of about 42 °C) to conserve energy. Such a capacity for torpor
Torpor is a state of decreased physiological activity in an animal, usually marked by a reduced body temperature and metabolic rate. Torpor enables animals to survive periods of reduced food availability. The term "torpor" can refer to the time ...
is not very common in birds. Other bird species capable of torpor include the common swift
The common swift (''Apus apus'') is a medium-sized bird, superficially similar to the barn swallow or house martin but somewhat larger, though not stemming from those passerine species, being in the order Apodiformes. The resemblances between t ...
(''Apus apus''), the common poor-will (''Phalaenoptilus nuttallii''), the lesser nighthawk
The lesser nighthawk (''Chordeiles acutipennis'') is a nightjar found throughout a large part of the Americas.
The adults are dark with brown, grey and white patterning on the upperparts and breast; the long upperwings are black and show a whit ...
(''Chordeiles acutipennis''), and various species of hummingbird
Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With about 361 species and 113 genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but the vast majority of the species are found in the tropics aro ...
s.
Movements
These birds are permanent residents, but sometimes they move south within their range, and even outside of it, in the fall or winter.
During the winter, chickadees often flock together. Many other species of birds – including titmice
''Baeolophus'' is a genus of birds in the family Paridae. Its members are commonly known as titmice. All the species are native to North America. In the past, most authorities retained ''Baeolophus'' as a subgenus within the genus ''Parus'', b ...
, nuthatches
The nuthatches () constitute a genus, ''Sitta'', of small passerine birds belonging to the family Sittidae. Characterised by large heads, short tails, and powerful bills and feet, nuthatches advertise their territory using loud, simple songs. Mo ...
, and warblers
Various Passeriformes (perching birds) are commonly referred to as warblers. They are not necessarily closely related to one another, but share some characteristics, such as being fairly small, vocal, and insectivorous.
Sylvioid warblers
Th ...
– can often be found foraging in these flocks. Mixed flocks stay together because the chickadees call out whenever they find a good source of food. This calling-out forms cohesion for the group, allowing the other birds to find food more efficiently. When flocking, black-capped chickadees soon establish a rigid social hierarchy. In such hierarchies, males usually rank over females, and older birds over juveniles.
Black-capped chickadees sleep in thick vegetation or in cavities, usually singly, though they may occasionally roost clumped together. Their sleeping posture is with the beak tucked under the scapular (shoulder) feathers.
Their flight is slightly undulating with rapid wing beats. Flight speed is about .
Molt
Chickadees molt once a year; no prenuptial molt occurs in the spring. The postjuvenal molt at the end of the first summer of life is partial, involving only the body feathers and wing coverts. Thereafter, the postnuptial molts at the end of each reproductive season are always complete, involving all feathers.
Breeding
The black-capped chickadee nests in a hole in a tree, above ground. The pair either excavates the hole together, or uses a natural cavity, or sometimes an old woodpecker
Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. ...
nest. This species will also nest in a nesting box. The nesting season is from late April through June. The nest is built by the female only. It consists of a base of coarse material such as moss or bark strips, and lining of finer material such as mammal hair. Eggs are white with fine dots of reddish brown concentrated at the larger end. On average, eggs are . Clutch size is six to eight eggs. Incubation lasts 11–14 days and is by the female only, which is fed by the male. If an unusual disturbance occurs at the nest entrance, the incubating female may utter an explosive hiss, like that of a snake, a probable adaptation to discourage nest predators.
Hatchlings are altricial
In biology, altricial species are those in which the young are underdeveloped at the time of birth, but with the aid of their parents mature after birth. Precocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the mome ...
, naked with their eyes closed. Nestlings are fed by both sexes, but are brooded by the female only (when the male brings food to her, which she passes on to the young). Young leave the nest 12–16 days after hatching, in great part because the parents start presenting food only outside the nest hole. The young are still fed by the parents for several weeks, but are capable of catching food on their own within a week after leaving the nest.
Black-capped chickadees usually breed only once a year, but second broods are possible if the first one is lost. First breeding is at one year of age. Maximum recorded lifespan is 12 years, but most individuals live only half that long.
Black-capped chickadees are socially monogamous, and males contribute greatly to reproduction. During the laying and incubation periods, males feed their partners extensively. When the nestlings hatch, males are the primary providers, but as the nestlings grow, females become the main caretakers. Females prefer dominant males, and greater reproductive success is closely related to the higher ranking of the male.
Black-capped chickadees may interbreed with Carolina chickadees or mountain chickadee
The mountain chickadee (''Poecile gambeli'') is a small songbird, a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.
Taxonomy
The specific name honors naturalist William Gambel. The mountain chickadee was formerly placed in the genus ''Parus'' with ...
s where their ranges overlap. It appears to be more rare, but interbreeding with boreal chickadees has also been documented.
Dominance hierarchy
During the winter, the species forms flocks through which dominance hierarchies can be easily observed. Dominance hierarchies play an important role in determining the social behaviors among the birds in these flocks. Positive correlates to higher social rankings include territory size, body condition, singing rate, and reproductive success. The hierarchies are linear and stable; once a relationship is established between two birds, it stays the same for many years. In general, older and more experienced birds are dominant over younger ones, and males are dominant over females. Dominant and subordinate members differ in their foraging strategies and risk-taking behaviors. Dominant individuals control access to preferred resources and restrict subordinates to foraging in novel, riskier, or suboptimal environments. Subordinate individuals are often observed foraging in the outermost tree parts that are more prone to predators, while dominant individuals forage low and close to the tree trunk. In experiments, subordinate individuals display less neophobia when approaching novel foods and objects, compared to their dominant counterparts. Subordinate individuals are also more likely to enter novel environments than their dominant counterparts. This is similar to subordinate primates, which feed on novel food more readily than the dominant individuals because they are more used to eating suboptimal and unfamiliar food. No difference is observed in ability to learn novel foraging tasks between dominant and subordinate individuals.
State and provincial bird
The black-capped chickadee is the state bird of Maine and Massachusetts and the provincial bird of New Brunswick
New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
. In 2014, the black-capped chickadee was named the official bird of Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
for 2015. In 2022 the black-capped chickadee was named the official bird of Calgary, Alberta. The bird is prominently featured on the standard Maine license plate, as well as welcome signs on major roadways in Massachusetts.
Conservation
The IUCN
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...
classifies the black-capped chickadee as least concern
A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...
due to its wide distribution and large populations. In Alaska and Washington, and parts of western Canada, black-capped chickadees are among a number of bird species affected by an unknown agent that is causing beak deformities, which may cause stress for affected species by inhibiting feeding ability, mating, and grooming. Black-capped chickadees were the first affected bird species, with reports of the deformity beginning in Alaska in the late 1990s, but more recently the deformity has been observed in close to 30 bird species in the affected areas.Beak Deformities
Alaska Science Center of the United States Geological Survey. Alaska.usgs.gov (15 February 2013). Retrieved on 2013-03-23.
References
Further reading
*Smith, S.M. (1991). ''The black-capped Chickadee: Behavioural Ecology and Natural History''. Cornell University Press. (1991 reprint).
*Smith, S.M. (1993). Black-capped Chickadee. In ''The Birds of North America, no. 39.'' (A. Poole, P. Stettenheim and F. Gill, eds.) Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences.
*Otter, K.A. (ed) (2007). "Ecology and behavior of chickadees and titmice: an integrated approach". Oxford University Press, Oxford. 310 pp
External links
*
*
– USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
– Cornell Lab of Ornithology
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q282687
black-capped chickadee
The black-capped chickadee (''Poecile atricapillus'') is a small, non-migratory, North American songbird that lives in deciduous and mixed forests. It is a passerine bird in the tit family, the Paridae. It is the state bird of Massachusetts and ...
Native birds of Alaska
Birds of Canada
Birds of the United States
Birds of North America
Provincial symbols of New Brunswick
black-capped chickadee
The black-capped chickadee (''Poecile atricapillus'') is a small, non-migratory, North American songbird that lives in deciduous and mixed forests. It is a passerine bird in the tit family, the Paridae. It is the state bird of Massachusetts and ...
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus