Black-capped Chickadee
Poecile atricapillus
Summary 5
The Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) is a small, North American songbird, a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is the state bird of both Maine and Massachusetts in the United States, and the provincial bird of New Brunswick in Canada. It is notable for its capacity 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 (they can...
Habitat and ecology 6
Systems
- Terrestrial
Associations 7
Black-capped chickadees give sharp "zeet" alarm calls when they see a predator. Predators are often mobbed by groups of chickadees in order to scare it away. Predators near nests often evoke a distraction display, where the chickadee lands near the predator, leans towards it with the tail feathers fully spread, and raises and lowers its wings.
Adult black-capped chickadees are preyed on primarily by small hawks, owls, and shrikes, including sharp-shinned hawks (Accipiter striatus), northern shrikes (Lanius excubitor), eastern screech owls (Otus asio), and saw whet owls (Aegolius acadicus). Eggs and nestlings are preyed on by mammalian nest predators such as raccoons (Procyon lotor), squirrels (Sciurus and Tamiasciurus), opossums (Didelphis virginianus), and weasels (Mustela). House wrens (Troglodytes aedon) sometimes destroy eggs in order to take over the nesting cavity.
Known Predators:
- sharp-shinned hawks (Accipiter striatus)
- northern shrikes (Lanius excubitor)
- eastern screech owls (Otus asio)
- saw whet owls (Aegolius acadicus)
- raccoons (Procyon lotor)
- tree squirrels (Sciurus)
- red squirrels (Tamiasciurus)
- opossums (Didelphis virginianus)
- weasels (Mustela)
- house wrens (Troglodytes aedon)
Ecology 8
In Massachusetts, once they became breeders, males lived an average of 3.2 years, females lived an average of 2.5 years (Smith 1995, Auk 112:840-846). In Alberta, winter survival rates were higher in a food-supplemented area than in a control area, but breeding densities in the two areas were similar (Desrochers et al. 1988). In Pennsylvania, supplemental food appeared to influence movements more so than it did winter survival, but in Wisconsin there was evidence that bird feeders influenced actual survival rates (Egan and Brittingham 1994).
In southwestern Alberta, territory size averaged about 8-9 ha, overlapped with territories of mountain chickadee (Hill and Lein 1989).
In cold winter weather, black-capped chickadees may undergo regulated hypothermia, which saves them significant amounts of energy. They also store food and may roose communally in tree cavities, thus minimizing heat loss.
Behaviour 9
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Sources and Credits
- (c) Marv Elliott, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Marv Elliott
- (c) Wikimedia Commons, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Poecile-atricapilla-001.jpg/460px-Poecile-atricapilla-001.jpg
- (c) Zac Cota, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Zac Cota
- (c) Jeff Whitlock, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://s.yimg.com/pw/images/en-us/photo_unavailable_l.png
- (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poecile_atricapillus
- (c) International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/34634352
- (c) The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/31413348
- (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28814257
- (c) The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/31413346
