Our Little Chickadees

On my blog I've had several different 'contests' for my bird favorites... from "Best Dressed" to "Most Cheerful" to "Most Brilliant".  However, I think if I had to pick one bird as my overall favorite, it would be our Chickadees.

Our Chickadees are Black-capped Chickadees.  I know that because in the area where we live, that's the species we have-- not because I'm good enough to be able to tell a Black-capped Chickadee from a Carolina Chickadee!  While I have had a close relationship with Chickadees over the years, I think it would be hard for me to differentiate a Carolina Chickadee's "smaller head and shorter tail".

Even though Chickadees are my favorite birds, I don't have too many photos of them.  They are usually constantly on the move, which makes them a hard subject to photograph.  So when I recently saw the one in the picture above, sitting very still... I grabbed my camera.  Usually when there is a bird sitting motionless near our feeders, it means there is a predator nearby.  Typically a hawk.  So as I photographed this little Chickadee I also prayed that it wouldn't become a meal while I clicked away with my camera!  

The lone Chickadee was the only bird anywhere around the feeders.  Even though a Chickadee wouldn't make a very big meal for a hawk (they only weigh from .3 to .5 ounces) it would be better than nothing!

 After it had been sitting perfectly still for awhile (and in a rather uncomfortable-looking position I might add), the Chickadee got brave enough to start looking around.

Apparently the coast was clear, and eventually it flew down to the feeder and got a sunflower seed.  Phew!!!

As I said, I've had a close relationship with Chickadees over the years.  Here's an old photo of me feeding one from my hand way back in 1978:

And it's a family thing.... as the following photos show, we've had 3 generations who have enjoyed doing this.  Here's an old photo of my mom with a Chickadee on her gloved hand:

and both of my daughters have done it as well...

A Chickadee in hand and 2 more waiting in line to get a seed (the feeders have to be empty for them to come to you!)

We haven't done that in a long time, but it is a lot of fun.  

Another fun thing about Chickadees is the different sounds they make.  From the familiar "chick-a-dee-dee" to "fee-bee" to various scolding sounds and gargle noises, they are quite the little vocalists.  I saved an article back in 2006 from the Penn Lines magazine about Chickadee language: 

It says they can make at least 13 different 'gargles' and some can do more than 30!  They use the sounds to communicate with each other (or scold people when the feeders are empty!).  I was amazed to even find a Chickadee/English 'Dictionary' online!  Yep, you can click on that link if you want to know how a Chickadee says, "Hiya, big boy. How's about giving me a lil' ol' bug?"

Back to my chickadee, let's see what it's saying....

According to the Penn Lines article, "seet" means "there's a flying predator nearby".  Thanks for giving out the warning, little Chickadee!