Ask almost any bird watcher what their favorite bird is and odds are that one or another member of the chickadee family will be mentioned more than most other species. While the Black-capped Chickadee is perhaps the most common of the chickadees across the United States and Canada, the Chestnut-backed Chickadee is one which many bird watchers would love to see visiting their feeders.
The smallest of all the North American chickadees, what it lacks in physical size it makes up for in the complexity of its songs. Although it doesn’t have the whistle call by which its more wide-spread cousins are so well known or the classic buzzy “chickadee-dee-dee of the Black-capped, the Chestnut-backed’s high pitched “chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-dee” is a familiar sound to those who have spent time in the evergreen forests of the far west.
Not actually long distance migrators, the Chestnut-backed Chickadee practices vertical migration – moving into higher elevation areas when the weather turns fair and descending into the low-lands and foothills when the snow covers the mountains in winter. For this reason, those who live within their range are fortunate to have these cheery and entertaining little birds visiting their feeders throughout the year.
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