These birds are very active, often feeding upside down, clinging to the underside of twigs and branches looking for food. Flocks of this inquisitive bird spend the winter making the rounds of feeders in a neighborhood. In spring, chickadees disperse into the woods to nest. Black-capped Chickadees usually prepare their own nesting hole in soft, rotting tree stumps.
Enticing them into breeding boxes is difficult unless the boxes are filled with sawdust, which deceives the chickadees; they carry the sawdust out bit by bit and accept the box for nesting.
Black cap and throat, white cheeks, gray back, dull white underparts.
Resident from Alaska east across Canada to Newfoundland, south to northern California, northern New Mexico, Missouri, and northern New Jersey. Winters south to Maryland and Texas when it can be found in suburban gardens
Photo © Roy Harvey
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