Carolina Chickadee

 Carolina Chickadee

Poecile carolinus

The Carolina Chickadee is one of the most frequently encountered birds in the Carolinas and along with the Mockingbird, Northern Cardinal, and Carolina Wren is practically a guarantee in any garden in our area. This birds is often one of the first species a new birdwatcher will identify in the field or at a  newly installed feeder. Our chickadee is also familiar to anyone who lived in the Northeastern United States, Canada, or the Upper Midwest, as it closely resembles the Black Capped Chickadee Poecile atricapilius. The Carolina Chickadee is a nonmigratory resident that remains with us all year. Chickadees are gregarious, noisy, and adaptable and can be seen foraging for insects, fruits, or seeds in trees, shrubs or herbaceous vegetation, or travelling in mixed flocks of woodland birds. Chickadees and titmice are part of a large family of songbirds known as Tits or more specifically Parids. The European counterpart of the Carolina Chickadee is the Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus, which occupies a similar niche and is the same size. All of these birds exhibit similar traits and features and are highly adaptable. In North America we have six species of chickadees and five species that are called titmice.

Description 

In general, chickadees are small, round songbirds that have a fairly long tail and a head that looks larger than their body. They are among our smallest garden birds with only kinglets, Winter Wrens, and  some hummingbirds being smaller. Chickadees are easily identified by their black and white heads, greyish or bluish back, and a light underside. Individuals can show a lot of variation with some birds appearing yellowish below, while others are are olive colored. The similar looking Black Capped Chickadee is noticeably larger and has some minor differences in its plumage. The only place where you will see Black Capped Chickadees in the Carolinas is in some areas of Appalachia such as along the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

• Size: 9-12cm (3.5-4.5"), smaller than most other garden birds 

• Plumage: Grey or bluish on the back and wings with a black cap, nape, and throat and white cheeks. The underside can be olive, greyish, white, or yellow depending on the lighting and season.  

• Shape: Small, round bird with a long tail, and a short pointed beak

• Flight: Chickadees have a bouncy flight profile and mostly fly short distances between trees of clumps of vegetation 

Similar Birds 

Black and White Warblers are the most likely birds to be confused with chicakdees

Black Capped Chickadee: Larger with slight plumage difference such as white wings, undersides that appear whitish. Rarely overlaps with Carolina except in Blue Ridge. All chickadees in the Cape Fear Region are Carolinas 

Black and White Warbler: A striking summer resident and migrant that is black and white. Both  males and female warblers are told from chickadees by their zebra-striped patterns, long pointed bill, and habit of creeping up and down trees like a nuthatch. Male Blackpoll Warblers have white cheeks and black caps but also have a zebra-striped body.

Nuthatches: Longer bill, very short  tail, creeps up and down trees

Tufted Titmouse: Larger cousin of the chickadee that is common in our area. Despite being distantly related, titmice look nothing like chickadees. They are larger (up to 17cm or 7") and have have a cardinal like crest, no black on the head, and white undersides. Titmice are often seen with chickadees. 

House Sparrow: Male House Sparrows can be confused with chickadees but are much larger (more like 15-17cm or 6-7"), have a black chest, reddish-brown back, and a thick finch-like bill. They overlap with chickadees only in gardens, parks, and cities and are never found in woodlands. 

Calls 

The Carolina Chickadee makes a variety of call notes including high-pitched whistles, chatters, trills, and a gurgling call. Chickadees may have dozens of different sounds including specific calls to warn of Accipiter hawks, land-based predators, or to maintain contact with other birds in mixed flocks. The main calls include a high pitched "seees" or "seeet" call, and a buzzy "Chip-zeeeek" call that. Flocks of chickadees produce a constant chatter of noise while feeding or travelling. Below are some notable calls for chickadees. You can listen to these and other calls on Cornell Lab's All About Birds profile about this species.

Whistled Song: The Carolina Chickadee's main song is a three to eight note whistled phrase that is mainly given by males during the winter and spring to announce territories. This song usually has a singsongy pattern and to me sounds like "Car-O-Lin-A" or "Spring Is-Here", although most books write it as "Fee-Bee-Fee-Bay". In general terms, the whistle song of chickadees are very loud and sound like no other woodland bird. The Black Capped Chickadee only has a two or three note whistle. This song is heard from December to early May, and sporadically during the summer and autumn. 

Chick-A-Dee-Dee Call: The most familiar call of chickadees is their namesake "chick-a-dee-dee" call. The Carolina's call is much faster than the Black Capped Chickadee and may have up to a dozen "dees". This call is mainly a warning call to other chickadees, or to a potential predator or nest intruder. 

Sparrowhawk Warning: Another distinctive call that chickadees, and titmice make is a piercing series of whistles that sound like "Seeeeeese seeeeese seeeese" This call is given when there is a Merlin, Sharp Shinned, or Cooper's Hawk in the area and is often heard before the birds fall silent. This warning is apparently understood by other birds and animals as other birds and often squirrels will rush to cover or freeze when it is given. 

Notes  

Season: Carolina Chickadees are nonmigratory residents that remain in their territories year-round. 

Range: Chickadees are common to abundant across all regions of North and South Carolina and are widespread across the Southeastern US from Eastern Texas to as far north as Ohio and Delaware. They overlap with Black Capped Chickadees only along the Appalachian Corridor and in the northern edge of their range. 

Habitat: Carolina Chickadee are found in virtually any habitat with trees, shrubs, or clumps of herbaceous plants. They are common in forest openings, woodlands, hedgerows, old fields, parklands, gardens, and even landscape areas in urban areas. While uncommon at the coast, you could find Carolina Chickadees in maritime thickets, along the edges of saltmarshes, or on some barrier islands as long as there is cover. The only habitats that chickadees avoid are open grasslands, extensive marshes, or in landscapes with no cover. 

Diet: Chickadees consume a mix of insects, seeds, and fruits, and are quite adaptable. This bird consumes largely caterpillars of moths and butterflies, other insect larvae, aphids, and small spiders. They consume the seeds of various wildflowers, weeds, and grasses with wild or cultivated sunflowers being a favorite choice. Chickadees also eat the seeds of alders, birches, elms, maples, and numerous other trees, and consume fruits of Virginia Creeper, Poison Ivy, and Hackberry among others. Chickadees, titmice, and nuthatches cache (store) seeds and nuts throughout the year and stockpile large amounts of food during the autumn in crevices, plant stalks, or human objects. At bird tables, chickadees will eat sunflower seeds, peanut halves, safflower, mealworms, chopped tree nuts, suet, lard, and even sip from hummingbird or oriole feeders. Caterpillars and other insects are an important factor in the breeding success of chickadees and titmice with thousands of caterpillars needed to raise one brood of birds (from Douglas Tallamy Bringing Nature Home)

Caterpillars are the most important food for chickadees

Nesting: Chickadees nest very early in the season with our species breeding as early as February while most birds are out of the nest by late May. Carolina Chickadees raise only one brood per year. They typically establish tiny territories during the winter and may choose a nest site early into the season. They nest in tree holes, or other cavities. Typically, chickadees excavate a hole into a decaying limb or stump, although they readily reuse old Downy Woodpecker or Brown Headed Nuthatch nests, natural hollows, animal burrows, overturned stumps, and crevices in rock outcroppings. Chickadees usually choose nest sites that range from from ground level to 3m (10ft) and often use manmade objects such as mailboxes, vents, openings in buildings, or streetlamps as alternate nest sites. Chickadees are among the most common birds to accept birdhouses and will nest in any garden as long as there is enough food to support young. Their nest is a simple mat of moss, feathers, animal fur, and plant fibers that look like a mattress and may have a small depression for its eggs. No other nest in our area looks like this. The female lays 3-8 eggs per clutch and the nesting cycle takes about two weeks from laying to fledgling. After breeding, chickadees reform flocks. 

Chickadee nest with five nestlings

Behaivor: Chickadees are energetic birds that are often travel in flocks of 3-15 birds (or more). They forage in vegetation ranging from tall weeds or flowerbeds to the tops of large trees and can move across a wide range of environments. Chickadees maintain complex social structures in their flocks and form hierarchies that determine who gets the best access to food, and other resources. Chickadee flocks often contain other woodland birds such as woodpeckers, nuthatches, titmice, kinglets, gnatcatchers, Parulidae Warblers, and treecreepers, while goldfinches, siskins, juncos, and bluebirds may follow chickadees as well. Chickadees will readily mob predators such as cats, hawks, or owls, to signal other birds to investigate. While feeding, chickadees and titmice will land on small branches or plant stems, hang upside down, or hover near outer branches. At bird tables, these birds will take a seed or piece of food and fly off to a nearby branch to hammer it open or to cache it for later. 

Mixed Flocks: Chickadees often travel and feed in mixed flocks throughout the year. In the winter, chickadees are often found with other woodland birds, while in the summer, insectivorous birds like warblers, vireos, and gnatcatchers associate with local chickadees to find food. Scan flocks of chickadees or titmice to catch spring or autumn migrants, or unusual species. Some of the birds you can find in chickadee flocks include the following.

The Red Breasted Nuthatch is a bird that can be found with chickadees

• Downey and Hairy Woodpeckers 
• Yellow Bellied Sapsuckers (winter)
• Nuthatches 
• Treecreepers 
• Tufted Titmice 
• Carolina or Winter Wrens 
• Yellow Throated, Pine, or Black and White Warblers 
• Yellow Rumped Warbler 
• Orange Crowned Warbler 
• Kinglets 
• Gnatcatchers 
• Blue Headed Vireos 
• Eastern Bluebirds 

Also Look for Open Country Birds like 

• Goldfinches, House Finches, and Siskins 
• Juncos, Field Sparrows, or Chipping Sparrows 
• Common Flickers
• Red Headed Woodpeckers 

Garden Information

Carolina Chickadees are one of our most common garden residents and virtually every neighborhood or park has a population of chickadees. With nest sites, and good source of food, chickadees can live their entire lives within a garden. While birdfeeders and bird tables are the easiest way to bring birds to your garden, the landscape itself is the most important component of a good bird habitat. 

Garden Features

Carolina Chickadees on Narrow-leaf Sunflower, by Curtis Downey

It is rather easy to provide suitable habitat for chickadees in a garden setting. All these birds need is a good year-round food source, suitable nest sites, and a mix of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants for cover and habitat. Native plants and trees are an important element of any bird habitat as these plants provide the food that insects need to survive, which ultimately provide food for most of our birds. Caterpillars are an important food for adult chickadees and their young. Trees such as oaks, hickories, elms, and birches are good canopy trees for hosting insect populations, while shrubs or small trees like redbuds, dogwoods, blueberries, and native azaleas, are good choices for understory. Most native flowering plants such as sunflowers, coneflowers, goldenrods, salvias, and wild indigo are good choices for attracting butterflies and moths, or providing seeds for birds. Grapes, Virginia Creeper, and Coral Honeysuckle are examples of vines that support insect diversity. Chickadees will also happily visit flowerbeds and vegetable gardens that aren't treated with pesticides and almost any plant that attracts insects will help. Remembers that adding just a few native plants to a landscape can make a big difference in bird habitat. 

Nesting

A birdhouse with a hole for wrens or chickadees

 Chickadees will use any birdhouse or makeshift nest site with an entrance hole of at least 2cm (1") and are the most common nest box user in the Carolinas. The smaller hole size keeps these birds safe from larger species as they are often displaced by bluebirds, titmice, nuthatches, Crested Flycatchers, or woodpeckers. Put up birdhouses during the autumn and leave them up year round. Chickadees, bluebirds, and nuthatches often choose nest sites in the autumn or winter. You can place a nest box for chickadees anywhere in your garden although they are more likely to use a box placed near trees, hedges, or woods, then a box placed on a lawn or pasture. Chickadees often nest well before bluebirds, so it is possible for a birdhouse to be used by a chickadee in the early spring, while a bluebird or flycatcher may move in shortly after the chickadees fledge. In addition to, Carolina Chickadees will make use of gourds, repurposed letterboxes, teapots, watering cans,  flowerpots, and anything else with a hole and large enough cavity. Make sure all nest sites have good drainage or ventilation and a way for the young to exit when they fledge. In garden setting, it is best to place a birdhouse about 1-2m (3-6ft)  above the ground with the higher option being better for safety. Install boxes on a post and use baffling to keep cats, raccoons, and other animals from climbing to the nest. Boxes can be placed on trees, or on higher settings, although it will be harder to maintain or monitor them.

Bird Table Information

Chickadee and Oriole near a window feeder setup

The Carolina Chickadee is often the first bird to find a new feeder setup and may discover a new food source within days of installation. Along with cardinals, chickadees and  titmice are among the most loyal visitors and will visit multiple times per day. Even during the summer season, these birds will continue coming to your feeder. They will use any kind of feeder and are bold enough to come up to window mounted feeders. The presence of chickadees and  titmice often entice other birds to stop by, so keep an eye out for an odd visitor or two. You  can also train chickadees, titmice, and nuthatches to come to your hand by putting nuts or seeds in your palm and sitting still.

Chickadees love black oil sunflower seeds and chopped peanuts the most but will take safflower, striped sunflower seeds, and chopped tree nuts as well. They generally avoid millet or other small seeds and cannot open nuts or peanuts that are whole. The best foods for garden birds in the Carolina are the "no-mess" or premium blends which typically contain shelled sunflower seeds, peanuts, small fruits, and sometimes  mealworms. These mixes are loved by chickadees and titmice, but are also eaten by most of our other birds. They also attract birds that normally ignore regular birdseed such as tanagers, orioles, most warblers, catbirds, and the like. Suet, lard, peanut butter, mealworms, and meaty table scraps can also be used to attract chickadees. Carolina Chickadees will also sip nectar from hummingbird or oriole feeders.  

Water dispensers for small birds

Other Needs: Chickadees do not need much else although a birdbath or other water source will be accepted. I sometimes offer a water globe (a hanging device that looks like a hummingbird feeder that provides water). Due to their small size, chickadees are not as likely to use traditional birdbaths as cardinals, robins, or starlings, and will avoid anything that is too deep. Placing small rocks into a bath can make water features accessible to small birds.