Titmice and Nuthatches 



285 



H. B. Logan 



FIG. 171. The chickadee is a 

 favorite with bird lovers because 

 of its confiding disposition. 



ashy color, and the chin, 

 throat, and top of its head 

 are black. Its length is 

 about 5i inches. 



Chickadees feed mainly on 

 insects and insect eggs gleaned 

 from the boughs and foliage 

 of trees. They devour large 

 numbers of cankerworms. In 

 their search for food they 

 often hang, back downward, 

 underneath a swaying branch. 



They lay from five to nine 

 eggs, and nest in hollow 

 stumps, or in trees at no 

 great distance above the 



ground. Sometimes they use nesting boxes that have 

 been provided for them. The entrance hole in a chicka- 

 dee house should be near the top. 



Both male and female chickadee utter the note phoebe. 

 By whistling this you may succeed in calling one of them 

 close to you, and possibly have the pleasant experience 

 of getting one to light upon you, as a number of bird stu- 

 dents have done. Another of their notes is chick-a-dee- 

 dee-dee. They become very tame where they are fed 

 in winter, both in the woods and in town. They take 

 suet hung in a tree for them, and may be induced to enter 

 an open window to get the crumbs of a doughnut. Some 

 persons have succeeded in getting chickadees to eat sun- 

 flower seeds from the hand or even to take food held 

 between the teeth. 



