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The Black-capped Chickadee (Parus atricapillus) 
By Anna C, Ames 
THE BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE is the only small bird with the com- 
bination of a gray back, black cap and bib, and white cheeks. Its flanks 
are rufous in autumn and winter, but fade later. This is the most widely 
known of American titmice and is said to be the tamest of American birds. 
It is an inquisitive creature and has a confiding disposition. When you visit 
its woodland haunts, it soon appears. The most common note of the chick- 
adee, state bird of Maine and Massachusetts, is a clearly enunciated, sweet- 
ly plaintive chick-a-dee-dee or simply dee-dee-dee. In the spring it gives 
a high, double-noted fee bee. 
Vocal sounds often serve as an important activity and behavior regu- 
lator of Black-capped Chickadees, especially in the flocking season. In- 
vestigation of the use of sounds by chickadees has been thorough. At least 
sixteen different calls and notes are used, eight of which find their place 
chiefly during breeding behavior, and eight primarily in general social 
relations, as follows (Odum; 1941-1942): “Phoebe song, alarm note, signal 
song, recognition note, contact note, flight or restless note, warning note, 
dominance note, musical ‘to-will,’ begging note, mating (?) note, ‘perplexed’ 
note, ‘hissing’ or ‘bluff’ note, distress call. Sounds may have several functions 
at different times.” (Wing’s Natural History of Birds, p. 328). 
