GRAY BIRDS SEEN IN NORTH AMERICA

Mexican Chickadee 

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Poecile Sclateri 

Both sexes have a black cap, white cheeks, and a short black bill. They have gray backs and flanks and paler grayish underparts.

They are similar in appearance to the Black-capped Chickadee and the Mountain Chickadee but they can be distinguished by their longer black bib which extends from their chin down onto their upper breast.

There is also a whitish band below the bib that extends down the center of their belly.

BILL: black and short.

SIZE: measures about 5 - 5.3 inches in length, with a wingspan of 7 - 8.3 inches.

WEIGHT: weighs about 7.5 - 11 grams.

COLOR: black, gray and white.

Insects, spiders, and seeds.

Montane coniferous forest, although they may move into lower elevation mixed or deciduous forests at times, particularly in the winter.

Wooded highlands in western, central and northeastern Mexico, the range extends north into extreme southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico.

SONG: A complex burry trilled whistle of "chischu-wur" and a rich "cheelee".

NEST: The female builds the nest in a snag or tree cavity with grasses, moss, strips of bark, and is lined with animal fur.

EGGS: 5 - 8 ovate white eggs, marked with fine reddish-brown spots.

INCUBATION: 11 -14 days, female.

FLEDGLING PHASE: 18 - 21 days.

They forage by moving actively through vegetative foliage, hopping about, and sometimes hanging upside down from a branch while they feed.

They may also sometimes hover while they glean insects from foliage.

SOURCES: https://www.birds-of-north-america.net

                   https://en.wikipedia.org

                   https://www.sdakotabirds.com