Chickadee

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Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Poecile rufescens II.jpg
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) (20325091656).jpg
Two species of chickadees.

The chickadees are a group of North American birds in the family Paridae included in the genus Poecile . Species found in North America are referred to as chickadees; species found elsewhere in the world are called tits. [1] [2] They are small-sized birds overall, usually having the crown of the head and throat patch distinctly darker than the body. They are at least 6 to 14 centimeters (2.4 to 5.5 inches) in size.

Contents

Their name reputedly comes from the fact that their calls make a distinctive "chick-a-dee-dee-dee", [3] though their normal call is actually "fee-bee," and the "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" call is an alarm call. The number of "dees" depends on the predator. [4]

The chickadee (specifically the black-capped chickadee Poecile atricapillus, formerly Parus atricapillus) is the official bird for the US state of Massachusetts, [5] the Canadian province of New Brunswick, [6] and the city of Calgary, Alberta. [7] The chickadee is also the state bird of Maine, but a species has never been specified. A proposed bill in 2019 would have named the black-capped chickadee as the official species for Maine, but was unanimously voted down in committee. [8] [9] The de facto species for Maine remains the black-capped.

One holarctic species is referred to by a different name in each part of its range: grey-headed chickadee in North America and Siberian tit in Eurasia.

Habitat

Chickadees are native to North America, where they are very common. In North America, the birds are found from the East Coast to the West Coast, and from Canada to Mexico. Chickadees' preferred habitats include mixed deciduous or coniferous forests, parks, open woods, cottonwood groves, willow thickets, and disturbed areas. [10]

Memory

Mountain chickadees are food-caching birds. A single bird can hide as many as 80,000 individual seeds, which they retrieve during the winter. Their ability to do so depends on their spatial memory of the locations. Birds that live in harsher conditions, where their ability to remember the location of food is more important, have been found to have better memory abilities, a larger hippocampus, and more neurons than chickadees that live in milder climates where food sources are easier to find without relying on memory. [11] [12]

Species

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tit (bird)</span> Family of small passerine birds

The tits, chickadees, and 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ground tit</span> Species of bird

The ground tit, Tibetan ground-tit or Hume's ground-tit is a bird of the Tibetan plateau north of the Himalayas. The peculiar appearance confused ornithologists in the past who called it as Hume's groundpecker and still later as Hume's ground jay or Tibetan ground jay assuming that it belonged to the family Corvidae that includes the crows and jays. Although morphologically confusing, the species has since been identified using molecular sequence comparisons as being a member of the tit family (Paridae) and is the only species in the genus Pseudopodoces. It is found in the Tibetan Plateau of China, India, Nepal & Bhutan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marsh tit</span> Species of bird

The marsh tit is a Eurasian passerine bird in the tit family Paridae and genus Poecile, closely related to the willow tit, Père David's and Songar tits. It is a small bird, around 12 cm (4.7 in) long and weighing 12 g (0.42 oz), with a black crown and nape, pale cheeks, brown back and greyish-brown wings and tail. Between 8 and 11 subspecies are recognised. Its close resemblance to the willow tit can cause identification problems, especially in the United Kingdom where the local subspecies of the two are very similar: they were not recognised as separate species until 1897.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willow tit</span> Species of passerine bird in the tit family Paridae

The willow tit 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 with a black cap and bib. It is more of a conifer specialist than the closely related marsh tit, which explains it breeding much further north. It is resident, and most birds do not migrate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-capped chickadee</span> Species of small, non-migratory, North American passerine

The black-capped chickadee is a small, nonmigratory, North American passerine bird that lives in deciduous and mixed forests. It is a member of the Paridae family, also known as tits. It has a distinct black cap on its head, a black bib underneath, and white cheeks. It has a white belly, buff sides, and grey wings, back, and tail. The bird is well known for its vocalizations, including its fee-bee call and its chick-a-dee-dee-dee call, from which it derives its name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carolina chickadee</span> Species of bird

The Carolina chickadee is a small passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boreal chickadee</span> Species of bird

The boreal chickadee is a small passerine songbird in the tit family Paridae. It is found in the boreal forests of Alaska, Canada and the northern United States and remains within this range all year. This bird is known for its high pitched trill patterns used in communication with other birds and food storage habits in preparation for winter months.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grey-headed chickadee</span> Species of bird

The grey-headed chickadee or Siberian tit, formerly Parus cinctus, is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread resident breeder throughout subarctic Scandinavia and the northern Palearctic, and also into North America in Alaska and the far northwest of Canada. It is a conifer specialist. It is resident, and most birds do not migrate. Curiously, the bird has no grey on its head, which is black, white, and brown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Himalayan black-lored tit</span> Species of bird

The Himalayan black-lored tit, also known as simply black-lored tit, is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. The yellow-cheeked tit is probably its closest relative, and it may also be related to the yellow tit. These three tits almost certainly form a distinct lineage, as indicated by morphology, and mtDNA cytochrome b sequence analysis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mountain chickadee</span> Species of bird

The mountain chickadee is a small songbird, a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexican chickadee</span> Species of bird

The Mexican chickadee is a small songbird, a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is still often placed in the genus Parus with most other tits, but mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data and morphology suggest that separating Poecile more adequately expresses these birds' relationships. The American Ornithologists' Union had been treating Poecile as distinct genus for some time already.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sombre tit</span> Species of bird

The sombre tit is a member of the tit family found in southeast Europe and southwest Asia. Sombre tits occur in low density in thin woodlands at the elevation range between 1000 and 1600 metres above sea level. Similar to the other tit species, the sombre tit is a cavity-nesting species, which makes the nests in the holes in juniper, willow, poplar, and other relevant tree species. In some cases they nest in iron pipes, and in artificial nest-boxes. The clutch usually consists on 4 to 9 eggs, having two clutches per year. The species appear to be resident in the country with slight local movements. They breed on mountain slopes and in open deciduous forest; lower down on in trees and bushes in rocky terrain, as well as in fruit orchards. The breeding season lasts from early April till end of July - beginning of August. The food mainly consists on insects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chestnut-backed chickadee</span> Species of bird

The chestnut-backed chickadee is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae, native to western North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-browed tit</span> Species of bird

The white-browed tit is a species of bird in the tit family Paridae. It is endemic to the mountain forests of central China and Tibet.

<i>Poecile</i> Genus of birds in the tit family Paridae

Poecile is a genus of birds in the tit family Paridae. It contains 15 species, which are scattered across North America, Europe and Asia; the North American species are the chickadees. In the past, most authorities retained Poecile as a subgenus within the genus Parus, but treatment as a distinct genus, initiated by the American Ornithologists Union, is now widely accepted. This is supported by mtDNA cytochrome b sequence analysis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caspian tit</span> Species of bird

The Caspian tit is a passerine bird in the tit family. It breeds in the deciduous mountain forests of northern Iran, just extending into Azerbaijan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avian keratin disorder</span> Bird disease

Avian keratin disorder (AKD) is an emerging disease among wild birds in North America characterized by overgrowth and deformities of beaks. Cases were first observed among black-capped chickadees in Alaska in the late 1990s, and it has spread rapidly since then. The cause of AKD is unknown, but may be Poecivirus, a species of virus within the family Picornaviridae that gained ICTV recognition in 2020.

Millicent S. Ficken, also known as Millicent Sigler Ficken, was an American ornithologist who specialized in birds' vocalizations and their social behaviors.

References

  1. ↑ Heisman, Rebecca (January 4, 2022). "Beloved Backyard Bandits: An Introduction to Chickadees". American Bird Conservancy. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  2. ↑ "Tit". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  3. ↑ The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories . Springfield, MA, USA: Merriam-Webster. 1991. p.  362. ISBN   0-87779-603-3.
  4. ↑ "Chirpy chickadees signal deadliness of predators". New Scientist. 23 June 2005. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  5. ↑ Massachusetts Facts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  6. ↑ Government of New Brunswick, Canada (2020-06-17). "NB Symbols". www2.gnb.ca. Retrieved 2022-08-17.
  7. ↑ Villani, Mark. "Tweet it out! Calgary names official bird". ctvnews. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
  8. ↑ "Maine lawmakers end the flap over Maine's state bird". Press Herald. 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  9. ↑ WGME (2019-03-07). "Lawmakers kill bill over Maine's state bird". WGME. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  10. ↑ "Chickadee: Description, Pictures, & Fun Facts I TheBirdPedia". 2021-12-15. Retrieved 2022-02-10.
  11. ↑ Mason, Betsy (5 September 2019). "Total recall: A brilliant memory helps chickadees survive". Knowable Magazine. doi: 10.1146/knowable-090519-1 . Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  12. ↑ Pravosudov, Vladimir V.; Roth II, Timothy C. (23 November 2013). "Cognitive Ecology of Food Hoarding: The Evolution of Spatial Memory and the Hippocampus". Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 44 (1): 173–193. doi:10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110512-135904. ISSN   1543-592X . Retrieved 24 February 2022.


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