I?ve been watching a family of black-capped chickadees teach their kids to eat from the suet and peanut feeders. The babies will sit directly in the middle between the two feeders and wait, with a very fast wing flutter that I assume is part of a begging stance. Lately they will sometimes go to the suet feeder, but still prefer being fed ? well, who wouldn?t!



Teresa Michelsen

Olympia, WA



From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu [mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Lyn Topinka
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2014 5:57 PM
To: Tweeters
Subject: [Tweeters] How to tell a baby Chickadee from "Mom" ...





hi all ...



this afternoon our Chestnut-backed Chickadee pair brought the "kids" to the feeder area ... it was pretty obvious how to tell "mom" from "kid" ...



mom flew effortlessly about 10 feet high, swooping from feeder to fence, to waterbowl, to feeder ...



kid flew about 4 feet high in bursts of 3-4 feet before he had to land on something ...



mom flew gracefully chirping now and then ...



kid flew with his mouth open screaming "FEED ME" ...



mom flew effortlessly in and around our pvc poles supporting our feeders ...



kid flew smack dab into a pvc pole and fell to the ground ... didn't phase him ... he got right back up, fluttered his wings, made it to the fence and started screaming "FEED ME" ...



we chuckled for quite a while ...

Lyn









Lyn Topinka
Vancouver, Wa,
NorthwestJourney.com
NorthwestBirding.com
ColumbiaRiverImages.com