Superb writing about the Chickadee, my favorite bird in my backyard in Virginia Beach, VA. Also, the Chickadee is a superior flying acrobat. Tiny little beauties singing the cheeseburger song (as my wife described long ago on her own), before my seeing that description just now on Mr. Freitas' Substack.
Thank you very much, Gary. Sounds like your wife’s ear is attuned to birdsong! They are beautiful little acrobats, with the songs to match. Glad you enjoyed.
Excellent essay on the Black-capped Chickadee, James. I like that image #17 of yours of the chickadee. That's amazing about their memory for storing and caching food.
They've become like trail companions on my hikes. I have regulars that I check in with and leaves seeds and nuts at regular checkpoints. Thanks for sharing
Thank you Teyani! Totally fair to say images of birds convey emotional expression. That is my hand—that’s an old picture, but that’s a reliable spot to feed chickadees, nuthatches, and all kinds of birds from the hand.
Say, I didn’t get this latest essay in my inbox, I only kinda stumbled across it as I was looking thru notes. I can’t figure out why. Any ideas? This is true on both the app and from my browser.
No… I turned off notifications to my email over a year ago. I mean it did not arrive in my inbox within the app nor within substack.com on my browser. It’s strange. This happened to me with another stack I subscribe to last week.
Fascinating story of the dialect variation of the chickadee, even on the Vineyard. I never realized how much the Island isolates birds from one another, and thus their call becomes unique to their location.
Thank you Tom! Vineyarders jokingly calling the mainland “America” because of how separate it feels is fitting for the chickadees. Appreciate you reading and commenting.
And then if you live where I live the Carolina and black-capped learn each others calls and mate and there is no way to tell the difference between a Carolina or a black-capped :). Yesterday I was hiking and I had three black-capped on a frenzy. Must have been two males flying from tree to tree calling hey sweetie and the female was chasing both. It was adorable.
The idea of birding in an overlap zone is daunting to me! It is always special to have knowledge of birdsong meet actual observations of those songs being sung. Thank you for reading, Lisa.
I once read that the call of the mountain chickadees is a lower pitch than the black-capped of the midwestern hardwood forests I was more familiar with - I have found that to be true, similar calls, but their "voice" sounds different. I'm excited for this spring/summer when we will be back in the midwest, so I can pay attention to all the dee's and perceive more about what they might be communicating with one another. Image 8 - with the wings fanned out, is a just stunning. Thank you James for a great article on a common, but truly beloved bird.
Regional dialects for songbirds are fascinating, and the accessibility of chickadees makes dialects not impossible to observe. Thank you for reading, Emma, and for your comment—and for teaching me about the unique sound of midwestern chickadees.
OK, WOW! So I have been hiking and biking and skiing for two decades with the cheeseburger bird, so much that when we hear it, we all say "cheeseburger," and never did any of us know that it's a chickadee. I don't know that I've ever seen it. It just fills our ears with "cheeese-bur-ger"
This was a fascinating read James, and they look SO much like the Coal tits (and Marsh tits) we have here. The Marsh tits make a chickaBee-Bee-Bee call.
Love it. Their songs are everywhere here all of a sudden. We get Black-capped and Carolina here, so there's a lot of overlap, interbreeding, and learning each other's songs. It makes for a lot of fun trying to ID them, which you kind of can't in an overlap zone. I've had Merlin pick up both songs from a single bird.
I looked ahead and cheated. I would have said 18 for the Carolina. Seems to have a nice clean bib.
I'd imagine the intermingling of the two species makes for some fun songs to hear. The fact one bird stumped Merlin is very telling! IDing the species in an overlap zone sounds like an insurmountable task, but must provide a lot of accessible birding fun.
I tried to include a couple pictures that could go either way. Had my money on you for someone who'd potentially guess right, given you bird in an overlap zone. If I didn't know I took 12 in Louisiana I'd have no clue, figured the biggest clue would be that 12 looks the least wintry.
I've honestly given up, and 99.9% of my eBird entries for chickadees are Black-capped/Carolina. It will be interesting to see how the chickadee landscape changes over the coming decades, as Carolinas seem to be expanding their range and are the more aggressive of the two. Where I grew up in the 70s and 80s, Carolinas were unheard of. Visiting my brother there a few months ago, I heard a distinctive four-note song that made me wonder if Carolinas were moving into northeast Ohio now too.
They’re definitely moving north, I didn’t know they were more aggressive—my experience with them is pretty limited. I’ll keep my ear out for the four note song. It’ll be cool to have chickadee sightings become even more interesting
Excellent post and lovely photos. Chickadees are related to our tits, they're most like our Coal Tits. It's interesting to listen to the call and song, they sound quite different to the tits, though the structure of the calls are similar. Our Great Tits generally say 'Teach-er, teach-er, while our Coal Tits sounds like drunken Great Tits. Therre's a saying if you can't identify a bird call in a British woodland it's probably a Great Tit.
Thank you, Juliet. That's interesting! When I think "tea-cher" I think Ovenbirds. "Drunken Great Tits" is a wonderful description--I'll have to spend some more time getting to know the songs and calls of Great and Coal Tits!
Superb writing about the Chickadee, my favorite bird in my backyard in Virginia Beach, VA. Also, the Chickadee is a superior flying acrobat. Tiny little beauties singing the cheeseburger song (as my wife described long ago on her own), before my seeing that description just now on Mr. Freitas' Substack.
Thank you very much, Gary. Sounds like your wife’s ear is attuned to birdsong! They are beautiful little acrobats, with the songs to match. Glad you enjoyed.
Excellent essay on the Black-capped Chickadee, James. I like that image #17 of yours of the chickadee. That's amazing about their memory for storing and caching food.
They've become like trail companions on my hikes. I have regulars that I check in with and leaves seeds and nuts at regular checkpoints. Thanks for sharing
Thank you Neil. 17 is one of my favorite photos I have of chickadees—and I have fewer than I should.
It’s special you have regulars you’ve developed rapport with. They must love the seed tax!
One of my favorite “littles”. They must love fairly close to me, because I see and hear them often.
Images 10 and 18 show SO much personality and dare I say emotional expression?
Is that your hand the little one is eating from? So cool!
Image 20:is breathtaking. I’ve never seen one like this.
Thank you Teyani! Totally fair to say images of birds convey emotional expression. That is my hand—that’s an old picture, but that’s a reliable spot to feed chickadees, nuthatches, and all kinds of birds from the hand.
Nice!!
Say, I didn’t get this latest essay in my inbox, I only kinda stumbled across it as I was looking thru notes. I can’t figure out why. Any ideas? This is true on both the app and from my browser.
I don’t know why that would happen. Do you mean your email inbox? Did it go to one of the other folders? Maybe Social or Updates. Mine goes to Social.
No… I turned off notifications to my email over a year ago. I mean it did not arrive in my inbox within the app nor within substack.com on my browser. It’s strange. This happened to me with another stack I subscribe to last week.
I have no idea why that would happen!
Thanks for giving it some thought. I’m going to continue to try and reach Substack techs about this.
Fascinating story of the dialect variation of the chickadee, even on the Vineyard. I never realized how much the Island isolates birds from one another, and thus their call becomes unique to their location.
Great photos, too. You are a true birder.
Thank you Tom! Vineyarders jokingly calling the mainland “America” because of how separate it feels is fitting for the chickadees. Appreciate you reading and commenting.
And then if you live where I live the Carolina and black-capped learn each others calls and mate and there is no way to tell the difference between a Carolina or a black-capped :). Yesterday I was hiking and I had three black-capped on a frenzy. Must have been two males flying from tree to tree calling hey sweetie and the female was chasing both. It was adorable.
The idea of birding in an overlap zone is daunting to me! It is always special to have knowledge of birdsong meet actual observations of those songs being sung. Thank you for reading, Lisa.
I once read that the call of the mountain chickadees is a lower pitch than the black-capped of the midwestern hardwood forests I was more familiar with - I have found that to be true, similar calls, but their "voice" sounds different. I'm excited for this spring/summer when we will be back in the midwest, so I can pay attention to all the dee's and perceive more about what they might be communicating with one another. Image 8 - with the wings fanned out, is a just stunning. Thank you James for a great article on a common, but truly beloved bird.
Regional dialects for songbirds are fascinating, and the accessibility of chickadees makes dialects not impossible to observe. Thank you for reading, Emma, and for your comment—and for teaching me about the unique sound of midwestern chickadees.
What lovely little birds! Living in the UK I have never seen one, but I can see they have so much character :-)
They certainly do! Thank you Angie.
OK, WOW! So I have been hiking and biking and skiing for two decades with the cheeseburger bird, so much that when we hear it, we all say "cheeseburger," and never did any of us know that it's a chickadee. I don't know that I've ever seen it. It just fills our ears with "cheeese-bur-ger"
It sounds like this in our neck of the woods, nothing like your first video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E25czyNMhqE
Now I know what I can picture when I hear it.
Sounds like chickadees have a fittingly special place in your life Amanda! Glad this post helped connect the dots
This was a fascinating read James, and they look SO much like the Coal tits (and Marsh tits) we have here. The Marsh tits make a chickaBee-Bee-Bee call.
They do look alike! I had to google. That’s interesting the calls are so similar. Thank you for reading, Sarah.
Chicka-dee-dee-dee is one of my favorite, comforting forest sounds. (Mountain chickadees here in Flagstaff.)
Well done James.
Thank you, Robert.
Wonderful! I never ignore Chickadees, but I will pay them more mind now that I know more about what they are saying.
Anyone worth their salt doesn’t ignore chickadees.
What a lovely summation of all of the fascinating science about chickadees. Thanks so much for compiling these along with the lovely photos, James!
Thank you for reading, Kelly!
Love it. Their songs are everywhere here all of a sudden. We get Black-capped and Carolina here, so there's a lot of overlap, interbreeding, and learning each other's songs. It makes for a lot of fun trying to ID them, which you kind of can't in an overlap zone. I've had Merlin pick up both songs from a single bird.
I looked ahead and cheated. I would have said 18 for the Carolina. Seems to have a nice clean bib.
I'd imagine the intermingling of the two species makes for some fun songs to hear. The fact one bird stumped Merlin is very telling! IDing the species in an overlap zone sounds like an insurmountable task, but must provide a lot of accessible birding fun.
I tried to include a couple pictures that could go either way. Had my money on you for someone who'd potentially guess right, given you bird in an overlap zone. If I didn't know I took 12 in Louisiana I'd have no clue, figured the biggest clue would be that 12 looks the least wintry.
I've honestly given up, and 99.9% of my eBird entries for chickadees are Black-capped/Carolina. It will be interesting to see how the chickadee landscape changes over the coming decades, as Carolinas seem to be expanding their range and are the more aggressive of the two. Where I grew up in the 70s and 80s, Carolinas were unheard of. Visiting my brother there a few months ago, I heard a distinctive four-note song that made me wonder if Carolinas were moving into northeast Ohio now too.
They’re definitely moving north, I didn’t know they were more aggressive—my experience with them is pretty limited. I’ll keep my ear out for the four note song. It’ll be cool to have chickadee sightings become even more interesting
Fascinating! I always hear the song as 'hey baby' but that's splitting hairs.
Baby rather than sweetie feels more apt! Thank you Marian.
Excellent post and lovely photos. Chickadees are related to our tits, they're most like our Coal Tits. It's interesting to listen to the call and song, they sound quite different to the tits, though the structure of the calls are similar. Our Great Tits generally say 'Teach-er, teach-er, while our Coal Tits sounds like drunken Great Tits. Therre's a saying if you can't identify a bird call in a British woodland it's probably a Great Tit.
Thank you, Juliet. That's interesting! When I think "tea-cher" I think Ovenbirds. "Drunken Great Tits" is a wonderful description--I'll have to spend some more time getting to know the songs and calls of Great and Coal Tits!