508 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
In winter, Doctor Coues says, the characteristic “chickadee” note is 
(he only one heard, but in spring, at the approach of the breeding 
season, “they utter a peculiarly soft, long-drawn note of two syllables ,” 
which he considers somewhat different in intonation from the phoe-be 
note of the eastern chickadee (1874, p. 21). 
Additional Literature.—Finley, W. L., American Birds, 15-22, 1907.— 
Trafton, G. H., Methods of Attracting Birds, 20-21, 1910. 
MEXICAN CHICKADEE: Penthestes sclateri (Kleinschmidt) 
Description. — Length: 4.7^5.2 inches, wing 2.0-2.8, tail 2.2-2.4, tarsus .7. 
Adults: Top of head, nape, and throat jet black , with a faint gloss, sides of head snow 
white; rest of upper parts plain deep olive-gray or mouse-gray , wings and tail slaty with 
gray edgings; black of throat spreading fan-shape over chest, median lower underparts 
white, sides and Jlanks olive-gray, paler and more olive than back. (Winter adults 
more strongly tinged with olive.) Young: Similar, but black of head duller. 
Comparisons. —The Mexican Chickadee is similar to the Long-tailed but darker, 
the sides and flanks dark gray like the back, instead of being tinged with buff, and 
the black of the throat patch extended. (See p. 506.) 
Range. —Mountains of southern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and over 
much of Mexico to Oaxaca. 
State Records. —The Mexican Chickadee was taken in the San Luis Mountains 
July 19, 1892, and September 29, 1893, at about 7,000 feet (Mearns); and was found 
rather common among the pines of the Animas Mountains, 7,500-8,000 feet, August 
1, 1908 (Goldman). These constitute the only State records of this Mexican species, 
which barely reaches to New Mexico and to extreme southeastern Arizona in the 
Chiricahua Mountains.—W. W. Cooke. 
MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE: Penthestes gambeli gambeli (Ridgway) 
Description. — Length: 5-5.7 inches, wing 2.7-3, tail 2.4-2.0. Adults: Top of 
head black , interrupted by white line over eye, sides of head white; rest of uj perparts 
deep olive-gray or mouse-gray: wings and tail darker with pale gray edgings; throat 
black, median lower underparts white; sides, flanks, and under tail coverts, pale olivc- 
gray; legs and feet bluish gray. (In winter, white superciliary stripe broader, 
feathers of forehead edged with white, gray parts more buffy.) Young: Similar to 
adults, but black of head duller, white superciliary less distinct, and wing edgings 
faintly tinged with brownish buff. 
Comparisons. —The white line over the eye easily distinguishes the Mountain 
from the Long-tailed and Mexican Chickadees. (See p. 506.) 
Range. —Canadian and Transition Zones in western mountains from southern 
Idaho and east-central Montana south in mountains of western Texas, New Mexico, 
Arizona, and California. 
State Records. —The Mountain Chickadee is the most abundant of its family in 
New Mexico and is widely distributed. As its mime implies, it is a bird of the 
mountains, where it nests through a wide range of altitude. In Colorado, where it 
nests up to 10,000 feet, at least, and probably to 11,000 feet, it is known to nest at 
6,500 feet near Bayfield (Cary), and down to 6,000 feet at Trinidad (Cooke). (On the 
cast side of Pecos Baldy, July 18, 1919, young were out in the low spruces at timber- 
line and others were being fed in the nest (Ligon). In the Santa Fe region it nests 
from 7,500-10,000 feet. A nest with eight fresh eggs was found on May 14, 1921, 
