A black capped chickadee and its nesting site

Black capped chickadee finds a perfect nesting site.

One of my favourite birds is the black capped chickadee.  They are hardy little birds which are year round residents.  In the spring they will readily take to nesting boxes; I have had them in my bird houses on and off for thirty years.  I was hiking this morning along a river and saw a pair parting about a localized area.  I watched them for five minutes and discovered the reason for their fondness for the area; they were constructing a nest.

In the winter they will take bird seed and suit from feeders, or will happily glean any vegetation for all sorts of protein - mostly in the form of insect eggs and pupae.  In the spring they start to find emerged insects but will still carry on with winter feeding trends.  I often provide black sunflower seeds and love how they hammer away at the seed while it is securely held by their perched feet.

It is the spring where my passion for them is bolstered as they are often heard early in the morning  warbling their melodious song.  I hear them throughout the year, but in the spring they produce a distinctive two note whistle so characteristic of the species.  Then, of course, there is their namesake call, the familiar chick-a-dee trill so often heard.

It was nice to see the birds flitting about in the wild, setting up shop in a natural cavity.  They were, in fact, going about the business of cleaning it out as they would go in carrying nothing but exit with a bit of wood in their beaks.  After making it deep and clean enough it would be time to soften the den and finally lay and tend to the eggs.  It was wonderful to witness them in them in the midst of it all.

Thanks for reading.   www.ericspix.com   Eric Svendsen