Birds Need Water All Year Heated Bird Baths

Attracting Black Capped Chickadees
Nesting Feeding Mating

Attracting Black Capped Chickadees in winter may be as simple as setting up a bird feeder. In spring, a bird house constructed for this cavity nesting bird can greatly increase your chances of watching these birds as they go about their nesting and mating habits.

Description

Black-capped Chickadees are members of the Titmouse family and measure about 5 inches in length. Most backyard bird watchers are familiar with its black cap, white cheeks, and black bib.

Black-capped Chickadees are rarely bothered by a humans presence. In fact, many bird watchers have been able to hand feed these little birds, especially during winter.

Mating Habits - Nesting Habits

The mating habits of these birds are minimal. While the males will chase other males from their territory and some mate feeding may be observed, there is no real major Chickadee courtship display.

Pairs generally break from the small winter flocks that have been feeding together through the cold months and begin selecting mates. Black-capped Chickadees nest in wooded areas and are cavity nesters.

The nest is excavated in the soft, partially rotted wood of a tree trunk or broken limb. These birds are excellent candidates for man-made bird houses.

The nesting season is from April through June.

Locate any Chickadee Birdhouse 4-15 feet high. Place a few wood chips in the nesting box to encourage them to nest. They will not use the wood chips, but this helps in attracting them to the nest box.

They will have several different nest site locations excavated before selecting the one they use.

Should predators become a problem, the nesting pair will abandon the nest and build a new one some distance away.

The female will build the nest using moss and soft materials, taking about 4-5 days to complete. She will lay about six eggs that are white with speckles and she alone will incubate them for about 12 days. During the incubation time the male will feed her.

The Male calls her from the nest, at which time she leaves the nest and he feeds her. Sometimes the female will leave the nest and call the male, and he will bring food to her. Although the female will feed on her own occasionally.

After the young hatch, the female will brood the young for the first few days. During this time the male chickadee continues to bring food. After brooding, both the male and female share equally in feeding the young birds. The young will leave the nest in about 16 days.

In about 10 days after fledging the parent birds will no longer feed their offspring. 1 - 2 broods raised each season.

The Diet Of Chickadees - Feeding Habits

The Black Capped Chickadees diet consist of insects, seeds and berries. Eating large amounts of insect eggs and larvae. Often you'll see them hanging on the undersides of branches looking for insects.

Surprising to many, about 50 percent of their winter feeding habit is animal material (largely insects and insect larvae and egg cases) and up to 80 percent of their summer diet is animal.

With a penchant for small caterpillars, chickadees do a great service by feeding on such pests as spruce budworms and cankerworms.

These birds are food cachers, storing both seeds and insects, singly, in crevices or under structures on the ground such as twigs. They are able to find them up to a month later, and when several caches are available, they spend more time seeking those that contain greater energy value.

You can attract these birds to your bird feeder by using a suet feeder or by using black oil sunflower seed. By watching these birds you'll notice that only one bird feeds at a time.

If using sunflower seed consider using a Squirrel Proof Feeder to your bird feeding station.

Watch as they take one seed, fly to a nearby perch and eat the seed before retuning for the next.

The most dominate birds feed first, while subdominate birds wait before feeding.

Chickadees Late Summer And Winter Habits

After the young have left, Chickadees gather into small flocks of a dozen or less, remaining on or near their breeding ground throughout the winter.

Each flock contains some juveniles, some adult pairs, and some single adults. The flocks form around a dominate pair and establish a feeding territory which it defends against other flocks.

Chickadees have a longevity record of about eleven years, but the average life span in the wild is about two and one-half years.

In more northern regions during cold weather, chickadees (as well as other birds) often puff out their plumage, looking like a fat ball of feathers. This is a heat conserving mechanism as more air is trapped around the down feathers which increases insulation and prevents the loss of body heat.

They also can constrict blood vessels to the skin, which further reduces heat loss. If these mechanisms are not sufficient to maintain their body temperature (about 110 degrees F.), they can generate additional heat by shivering, but this is only a temporary measure as it requires metabolism of food reserves.

During cold winter nights when temperatures drop and food reserves are low, chickadees have a final trick up theirsleeve -- they enter a state of torpor. This depresses bodily functions, including breathing and metabolism, and drops body temperature about ten degrees. This significantly decreases the need for food reserves

These small flocks are joined by other species of birds as they move through their territory. Some of these others are: Downy Woodpeckers, Tufted Titmice, and White-Breasted Nuthatches.

The flock stays together from August through February. After which, the Black Capped Chickadees begin a new season.

Black-capped Chickadee Video