The Migration of North American Birds 



Compiled by Prof. W. W, Cooke, Chiefly from Data in the Biological Survey 



With a Drawing by Louis Agassiz Fuertes 



(See Frontispiece) 



CHICKADEE 



The Chickadees of the genus Penthestes are among the best examples of 

 resident birds, but not all of the individuals are strictly non-migratory. The 

 Black-capped Chickadee {Penthestes atricapillus atricapillus) is the best known 

 and has the widest distribution; including its subspecies, it ranges from ocean 

 to ocean and from the middle United States to high northern latitudes. It 

 has been separated into four forms: The eastern Chickadee breeds from central 

 Missouri, northern Indiana, and northern New Jersey, north to Hudson Bay 

 and Newfoundland; it also breeds in the Alleghanies south to North Carolina. 

 A few individuals are found in the winter a short distance south of the breed- 

 ing range. 



The region of the Great Plains south to southern Kansas, east central 

 Oregon, southern Idaho, northeastern Utah and the Rocky Mountains, south 

 to northern New Mexico, is occupied by the long-tailed Chickadee {P. a. 

 septentrionalis), extending thence northward to the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, 

 central Mackenzie and southwestern Keewatin. While the birds of the Rocky 

 Mountains have only an altitudinal movement, descending during the winter 

 one or two thousand feet below their summer home, some of the individuals 

 breeding on the plains wander south at this season several hundred miles to 

 central Texas. The range of the long-tailed Chickadee is cut off from the 

 Pacific by that of the Oregon Chickadee (P. a. occidentalis) , which extends 

 along the coast from southern Oregon to northern British Columbia. In the 

 far north, still a fourth form, the Yukon Chickadee (P. a. turncri), inhabits 

 northwestern Alaska, north and west of Cook Inlet. 



CAROLINA CHICKADEE 



The southeastern United States, from the Ohio Valley southward and east 

 of central Texas, constitutes the range of the Carolina Chickadee and its two 

 forms or subspecies. One of these latter, the Florida Chickadee {Penthestes 

 carolinensis impiger), occurs in east central Florida. The other, the Plum- 

 beous Chickadee {P. a. agilis), ranges over the eastern half of Texas north of 

 Beeville and the eastern two-thirds of Oklahoma. The remainder of the 

 southeastern United States is occupied by the typical Carolina Chickadee {P. 

 c. carolinensis) from the Gulf of Mexico north to southwestern Missouri, cen- 

 tral Illinois, central Ohio, southwestern Pennsylvania, and central New Jer- 

 sey. It is probable that this species is strictly non-migratory throughout all of 

 its range. 



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