WESTERN BIRDS Chickadee 



plump bodies and long tails. The top of head, nape, and 

 throat are a shining black, with sides of head and neck 

 white; the upper parts are ashy with the wing and tail 

 feathers margined with whitish; breast white with belly 

 and sides buffy. 



Like other members of the family they are veritable 

 acrobats, swinging upside down, or right side up, as best 

 suits their convenience in their search for insect eggs, or 

 other similar dainties. As they forage they give their 

 Chickadee-dee note which has given them their name. 

 It is not a real song, for none of these Tits are singers. 

 Besides this common call which is varied somewhat and 

 added to with several dees, a pensive, musical phosbe 

 note is used by both adults. When excited they scold in 

 a truly comical way, using a hoarse tshe daight, daight 

 call. 



Chickadees are resident birds and winter or summer 

 may be found in the trees of the mountains where, for 

 the most part, they raise their young. They are, how- 

 ever, extremely friendly little fellows, knowing no fear 

 of mankind, and not only coming to the lower altitudes 

 during the winter months, but many of them build about 

 the gardens, selecting holes in old stumps, decayed trees, 

 or even boxes placed for them. Usually the birds use 

 some deserted hole from two to twenty feet from the 

 ground, but they are capable of digging their own nest- 

 ing place, if the wood be rotten. Being wise little birds, 

 they carry the chips away from the nest instead of just 

 scattering them around below the hole as do the Wood- 

 peckers. The nest hole is lined with feathers, fur, plant 

 down, moss, or other available material. From six to 

 ten eggs are laid and the young usually leave the nest 

 early in June. While the baby Chickadees, which re- 

 semble their parents, are foraging for themselves, the 

 old birds rear another brood which leave the nest some- 

 time in July. Then, all banded together in one big flock, 



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