CHESTNUT BACKED CHICKADEES

Most mornings I sit at the dining room table for a while, waking up, reading the morning newspaper, studying Bible, and checking out the multitude of birds which come to my feeding stations and "warm" water. At last count I have viewed, identified, and listed just over sixty kinds of birds out this particular window.

Currently I am offering black-oil sunflower seeds in each of two feeders located at each edge of the window and suet in a small cage hanging from the vine maples about fifteen feet from the house. This current combination does not draw all the possible local varietites, and adding fruit or a different seed mix or even thistle for the goldfinches would increase the action, but cost and the severity of mid-winter weather suggests I am on the right track for now.

One common comment I hear when guests join me at the constant whirr and flow of seed seekers concerns the delightful chickadees which my friends all seem to enjoy. The infrequent viewers often thinks all little birds are chickadees and enjoy learning enough to pick out other kinds: the red-breasted nuthatch, or the occasional goldfinch, warbler, pine siskin, or other "LBJ"s*. Everybody especially likes the titmouse flocks.

I like to help folk pick out the different kinds of chickadees first. All are quick and typically flit to a feeder, perch but a moment, seize a single sunflower seed, and dart out to a nearby branch to (somehow) hold the seed firmly against the bark while pecking it open to yield the kernel inside. This can take only a three or four or five seconds and the novice viewer often sees only a tiny, quick, grey and black bullet.

I can usually get people to identify the black-capped chickadee most easily and that is my predominate type. Its head is solid black. The mountain chickadee is virtually identical but has white racing stripes on the sides of its "black cap". I usually see a few deep into each winter but never many at once and not for very long.

The other common chickadee is the Chestnut-backed variety (Parus Rufescens, pictured above) which, with few exceptions, is found only west of the Cascade Mountains along the Pacific Coast from Northern California to Alaska's Prince William Sound. As its name reveals, this little guy has a reddish brown back from neck to rump with some of the same brown on the sides and under the wings. It was always fun in Alaska on a winter outing to encounter groups of these happy little fellas, usually deep in the woods, working the few scattered berry bushes and windfall debris under the trees.

Strangely, it takes many viewers quite awhile before they can pick out this prominent brown-back feature, but once positively seen it becomes a hallmark characteristic. My little groups of Chestnut-backed buddies seem to "flock together" and while none may be noticed for a couple of days, when one is spotted several others are with it. They come and go most of the winter months.

Two more things: First, any chickadee is hard to photograph (unless the birds are specifically conditioned for photographic formats) and this photo took several days to snap. Secondly, the designator "LBJ" used above is commonly used by birders to indicate any "Little Brownish Jobbie " that was not precisely identified as being one of a particular species. Thus "LBJ" indicates seeing little unidentified birds.