WINTER BACKYARD BIRDS (U.S.AND CANADA)

Carolina Chickadee

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Poecile Carolinensis

Carolina Chickadee

Adults have a black cap and bib with white sides to the face. Their underparts are white with rusty brown on the flanks, they have gray back, short dark bill, short wings, and a moderately long tail.

They are very similar to the Black-Capped Chickadee, but they are distinguished by the slightly browner wing with the greater coverts brown and have less conspicuous white fringing on their secondary feathers.

Their tail is slightly shorter and more square-ended.

BILL: short, dark.

SIZE: small, measuring about 4.5 - 5.1 inches in length.

WEIGHT: weighs about 9 - 12 grams.

COLOR: black, white, gray, rusty brown and brown.

Insects, fruits, berries, seeds, and nuts.

Primary Diet: carnivore (eats terrestrial vertebrates insectivore), herbivore (frugivore, granivore) omnivore.

Animal Foods: amphibians, insects, terrestrial non-insect arthropods.

Plant Foods: seeds, grains, nuts, and fruits.

Deciduous forests and woodlands, or mixed forest habitats, and suburban areas.

The United States from New Jersey west to Southern Kansas and south to Florida and Texas.

Their song is a series of three to five singles notes, each with a different pitch. Their call is the familiar chick-a-dee-dee-dee and their song is fee-bee-fee-bay.

NEST: Both excavate a cavity or choose a cavity or nest box. The female builds the nest base with moss, sometimes strips of bark, adding a thick lining of hair and/or plant fibers.

EGGS: 3 - 10 white, reddish-brown spotted eggs.

INCUBATION: 12 - 15 days, female only.

NESTLING PHASE: 16 - 19 days.

They are active during the day and they do not migrate. They forage by moving quickly through branches and foliage of trees, clambering or making short flights as it searches for food, sometimes hanging upside down or hovering.