Great points, Dennis, which is why I still think mine was a Boreal. I mentioned a decreased cheek patch and light brown crown. In fact, the top picture on http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i7400id.html looks EXACTLY like the one I saw. There were no large breaks of color, just a subtle graduation of brown and gray. Another observation was that it had very light brown flanks.

Marian Murdoch
Belfair, WA
marianmurdoch at yahoo.com

----- Original Message ----
From: Dennis Paulson
I noted a few postings on chickadees with brown caps recently. I've just been watching young Chestnut-backed Chickadees at my suet/sunflower feeders. The adults have dark brown caps, easily mistaken for black in dull PNW lighting conditions, but the brown can be seen if you look closely. These young birds, on the other hand, have medium-brown caps that would never be called black. In the sun you might even call them light brown. Seeing them from above whenever I look out the window makes this obvious. To someone with no color vision, the cap might look lighter than the dark chestnut back.


Another difference from Boreal Chickadee, not mentioned I think, is that Chestnut-backs have very dark sides, Boreals paler. Boreals are also larger and longer-tailed, and indeed a good field mark is the much-reduced size of their white cheek patch in comparison with all other chickadees. Several Boreal Chickadees reported well outside the range of that species in the past have turned out to be oddly colored Black-caps.