General

Gray-headed Chickadee: Medium-sized chickadee with gray-brown back, gray cap, black bib, white cheeks, and white underparts washed with buff-gray on sides and flanks. Wings and tail are gray with white-edged feathers. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Gray-headed Chickadee: North American range is restricted to central Alaska and far northwestern Canada. Lives primarily among scattered conifers and riparian willow and aspen thickets.

Breeding and Nesting

Gray-headed Chickadee: Seven to nine white eggs marked with red brown, olive or gray, are laid in a nest made of grass, cottonwood down, flowers, fur, and cocoons, lined with grass, other vegetation, and animal fur, and built 4 to 28 feet above the ground in a deciduous tree, snag, or nest box. Incubation ranges from 13 to 16 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Gray-headed Chickadee: Feeds on insects, spiders, food scraps, conifer seeds, and berries; forages in conifers and shrubs, gleaning insects from trunks, branches, and foliage.

Readily Eats

Suet, Sunflower Seed

Vocalization

Gray-headed Chickadee: Call is a series of grating "dee deer" notes.

Similar Species

Gray-headed Chickadee: Boreal Chickadee has brown cap, back, and rump, lacks white edges on wing feathers, and has shorter tail. Black-capped Chickadee has black cap, gray back, and extensive white edges on wing feathers.