General

Black-capped Chickadee: Medium-sized, stocky chickadee with pale gray upperparts and breast and pale olive-brown underparts. Black cap and bib and white cheeks are conspicuous. Bill is short and thin. Wings are dark with broad white edges on feathers. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Black-capped Chickadee: Resident from central Alaska south to northern California, stretching east across the central and northern regions of North America to Newfoundland south to the Mid-Atlantic states. Inhabits deciduous and mixed forests and open woodlands; often occurs in suburban areas during winter.

Breeding and Nesting

Black-capped Chickadee: Five to ten white eggs with red brown markings are laid in a nest lined with vegetation, moss, feathers, hair, and insect cocoons, and usually built 4 to 40 feet above the ground in a tree, snag, or nest box. Incubation ranges from 11 to 13 days and is carried out by both parents.

Foraging and Feeding

Black-capped Chickadee: Eats insects and insect eggs, conifer seeds, bayberries, and other fruits. Forages among twigs, branches, and under bark; often clings upside down.

Readily Eats

Suet, Nuts, Sunflower

Vocalization

Black-capped Chickadee: Song is a drawn-out "check-a-dee-dee-dee." Call is a clear, fluted "fee-bee" or "fee-bee-be."

Similar Species

Black-capped Chickadee: Carolina Chickadee is smaller, has shorter tail, and lacks broad white edges on wings. Boreal Chickadee has gray-brown back and sides and hoarser song.