General

Mountain Chickadee: Medium-sized chickadee with gray upperparts, black cap and bib, white eyebrows, cheeks and nape, and pale gray underparts. Wings and tail are gray. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Mountain Chickadee: Resident from interior British Columbia south through Rocky Mountain and Cascade-Sierra chains to southern California and western Texas. Preferred habitats include dry coniferous forests, especially Ponderosa and lodgepole pines. During the summer can also be found in high-elevation aspen forests. In winter, sometimes inhabits juniper stands and river bottoms.

Breeding and Nesting

Mountain Chickadee: Five to twelve white eggs, sometimes with red brown spots, are laid in a nest made of coarse materials such as moss, lined with plant material including grass, moss, feathers, and hair, and built in a tree or snag from 1 to 23 feet above the ground, or in a nest box. Incubation ranges from 11 to 12 days and is carried out by both parents

Foraging and Feeding

Mountain Chickadee: Eats insects, spiders, eggs of both, conifer seeds, and berries; gleans food from foliage and tree bark, often by hanging upside down.

Readily Eats

Suet, Sunflower Seed

Vocalization

Mountain Chickadee: Song is a three or four note downward whistle of "fee-bee-bay" or "fee-bee-fee-bee." Call is a throaty "chick-adee-adee-adee."

Similar Species

Mountain Chickadee: Bridled Titmouse has a tuft and black line encircling the face, connecting the eye-line with the bib. Black-capped Chickadee lacks white eyebrow, lower edge of black bib more ragged, and has pale olive-brown wash on sides, flanks, and lower belly.