Dennis and Tweeters,

Certainly Chestnut-backed Chickadees are commoner in coniferous forests than in altered areas, but they too can be found in more "suburban" situations. I live less than a half mile from downtown Bellingham, but I frequently have Chestnut-backed Chickadees at my feeder, though not as much as Black-capped Chickadees.

Barry Ulman
Bellingham, WA.


On Mar 27, 2012, at 9:42 AM, Dennis Paulson wrote:

> Actually, the PNW coast Black-capped Chickadee is a quite distinct subspecies, even recognizable in the field as different, so it has surely been in this region for a while (but who knows how long it would have taken to evolve that difference?). As Gene said, it isn't really adapted to the climax vegetation here, which is the Chestnut-back's domain. Black-caps were probably originally in the alders, maples and cottonwoods along the rivers. Black-capped have been local on the Olympic Peninsula and have doubtless increased with the cutting of the original forests and regrowth of broadleaf species. Their absence from Vancouver Island is telling, as they are common all around it on the mainland. Chickadees are not known as good over-water dispersers, yet Chestnut-backed has done well at that in this region.
>
> Black-caps like deciduous, Chestnut-backs coniferous forests, to say it most simply. Where the two forest types are mixed it's not at all unusual to find both species. It's the same for Black-caps and Mountains east of the Cascades, and both of those species come to feeders together in many areas, I have heard. Mountains are in drier, more open conifer forests than Chestnut-backs, but those two species occur together up in our eastern mountains. Perhaps someone in the region has three chickadee species coming to their feeders. Anyone?
>
> Many of you know that the Puget Sound Black-capped have their own distinct song dialect, quite different from the rest of their species. That has been studied, but not recently, and it would be interesting to have a survey done of the entire region from Vancouver, BC, to Portland or beyond, so learn what the prevailing chickadee song is in each area. A two-noted whistle (feeeee-beee) describes it all across the continent, including in eastern WA, but here in the PS region the whistles are multiplied, often around five at a time (feee-bee-bee-bee-bee). What do your chickadees sound like? They are starting to whistle now, at least in my yard.
>
> Dennis
>

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