Hello Tweets!

In search of the bookshelves for an half-remembered issue of Washington
Birds I ran across a book I must have bought (at Wild Side in Olympia, I
believe) and promptly forgot -- The Black-Capped Chickadee: Behavioral
Ecology and Natural History, 1991 by Susan M. Smith of Mt. Holyoke
College and published by Comstock/Cornell University Press.

Wow, to put it mildly. The book reports on studies of just about
chickadee everything, including of course vocalizations. Turns out one
of the leading chicadee vocalization studies is

Ficken, M.S., R.W. Ficken, and S.R. Witkin. 1978. Vocal
repetoire of the Black-capped Chickadee. Auk 95: 34-48.

Dr. Smith lists many others as well, and there are several studies by
the Fickens. From Dr. Smith's book at page 58 I learned that the
chickadee feebee is a "whistle" of two notes, the first higher in pitch
than the second. The second of the two notes often has two components
itself, the second of the two components being slightly higher than the
first -- thus fee-beeyee.

That's what I heard last Sunday -- a musical "whistle." As reported by
Dr. Smith, the Ficken study indicates the feebee vocalization is usually
made at a distance from other birds, and this does not match my
observation last Sunday. The little chickadee that was crooning feebee
was right in the midst of ten or so chickadees feeding. (Phil, check me
on this.) Now I wish I had read the book the night before (with
foreknowledge I'd see the flock the next day) so I could have observed
just exactly what the feebee-ing bird was doing and the others. Oh well.

The Ficken studies, and the several others too, offer various meanings
for the many chickadee calls, too lengthy to go into here. Anyway, my
curiosity is fully satisfied ... until the next chickadee encounter at
Nisqually or in the back yard! And maybe one of these days I'll learn
how really to observe!

One more "note" to this e-mail vocalization -- on into the chapter on
chickadee communication in Dr. Smith's book (p. 79 et seq.) she
discusses songs v. calls at some length, with references to the
literature of course, and how the chickadee repetoire may undercut the
standard generalizations. But, no, Tweeters just survived the Plummage
Wars ... so I'll be quiet and go to bed.

Good Birding.

Bill Ward
Lacey WA
wward at mail.cco.net