Notes on Self-Identification, from the (Male) Black-capped Chickadee
This one, if you listen, will tell you his name.
He will tell you his name if you listen:
if you listen as you approach, you’ll hear
him make his chick-adee-dee-dee-dee-
(dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-, if you alarm him).
If you approach him suddenly,
you’ll hear his high-pitched sirened see,
but this (you see)is not his name: it’s terror.
If you don’t approach this bird,
but listen to him nonetheless,
you’ll overhear another thing:
a simple two-note feebee lofted
into the silence between trees,
and this is also not his name. It’s song.
Luke Hathaway
Chickadee
Chickadees can be found chirping across Nova Scotia with their easily recognizable call of “chick-a-dee-dee-dee”. These birds are native to Nova Scotia, known as j’gi’ges (jê·gii·kes) by the Mi’kmaq people.
Habitat
Nova Scotia’s forests and trees provide habitat for Nova Scotia’s black-capped chickadee. Chickadees like areas with lots of trees and shrubs; they can also be found in urban areas that contain a variety of different foliage. They live year round in these areas and can occasionally be found near cattail marshes in the fall and spring.
Calls and Identification
The black-capped chickadees are easily identifiable with their grey bodies, white face and black head. Chickadees have a complex language and call system; the call they are most known for is their distress call. They use this call to send information about the ‘threat level’ through the number of ‘dee’ calls that are present; they use a ‘dip’ call for other communication. Other birds also recognize and respond to the alarm calls of the chickadees. To hear chickadee calls use this link: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-capped_Chickadee/sounds
Food
Chickadees are foragers, which means they travel along the surface of anything they come across looking for food. They can skillfully catch insects mid-air, but also eat any vegetation that they find, such as fruits, seeds, berries and occasionally are known to eat the fat of dead animals. Chickadees also act like squirrels by storing food for later when food is plentiful.
Lifecycle
Like the majority of birds, chickadees are nesting birds. They build nests on small cavities that were created by other birds such as downy woodpecker or that are naturally formed or created by humans. The female bird selects the site in the spring, and both members of the pair clean up and modify the cavity and build a nest within. They use material found in their environment to soften the nest and to make sure the nest is hidden from predators. They then lay one to eight eggs at a time; the eggs are white with dots of red or brown. The baby birds hatch after 12-16 days into featherless birds. Baby chickadees rely on their parents to bring them food until they can leave the nest 10-16 days after hatching. After that, the parental pair re-joins or finds a flock for the fall and winter months until it is time to mate again.
Attracting Chickadees
Chickadees are very social birds and are easy to watch from the comfort of your own home. Filling bird feeders with sunflowers, nuts and other seeds will attract them and various other birds to the feeders to feast. You can also build nesting boxes by following the instructions at http://nestwatch.org.
Emilie Knighton
