Poecile rufescens

© Peter LaTourrette

Chickadees and their relatives are common in many parts of the World. How lucky we in Sonoma County to have this beautiful little bird as our local re[resentative of the Paridae family. Chestnut-backed Chickadees have small round bodies and long tails. White cheeks are offset by a dark crown and black bib. Chestnut-backed Chickadees have (of course) chestnut-colored back and rump.

These birds are residents of coastal forests from central California to south central Alaska. They are not restricted to the coastal forest, however. They are also common in the Douglas fir forests of western Oregon and Washington, and especially in the dense hemlock and higher forests of the Cascades. While not quite as common, these birds are found in high mountains of NE Oregon, northern Washington, southern British Columbia, east across northern Idaho to NW Montana.

Chickadees are named after their husky calls. The typical call is a "tseck-a-dee-dee." Unlike most chickadees, these birds have no whistled song.

Caterpillars, spiders, and insects gleaned from the bark of trees make up most of the diet of Chestnut-backed Chickadees. They often form mixed flocks with kinglets, nuthatches, and other small forest birds, feeding high in the trees. Misty, wet weather often causes the birds to feed lower. Like other chickadees they are common at backyard bird feeders, and become quite tame.

To attract chickadees to your feeder, provide them with black-oil sunflower seeds. Their bills are not strong enough to bite through the shell. So they come to the feeder and take one seed up to a branch where they can pound it open.

A pair of Chestnut-backed Chickadees nests in a woodpecker hole or natural cavity sometimes as high as 80 feet. There they lay their 5-9 eggs, which are white with reddish dots.

Chickadees are in the titmouse family. There are about 65 species of titmice in the world. All are small perching birds, with soft fluffy plumage usually in grays and browns. The bill is short, stout, and compressed (higher than wide). The feet are small but strong, the tarsus is scutellate (covered in overlapping scales). The long tail is slightly rounded. The round wings have 10 primaries, but the first (outermost) is only half the length of the second. The nostrils are concealed by dense tufts of feathers and nasal bristles.

The reddish-brown backs of Chestnut-backed Chickadees easily distinguish them from the widespread Mountain and Black-capped Chickadees. The more northerly Boreal Chickadee, barely reaching northern Idaho and Washington, also has a gray back. Most Chestnut-backeds have chestnut sides and flanks. The southernmost population in coastal Central California, however, has entirely white underparts.

Text Reference: Greg Gillson (c)

Length: 4.25 inches Short bill Dark brown crown White face Black throat Rufous back and sides Gray wings and tail White underparts Sexes similar

Boreal Chickadee has less white in the face than the Chestnut-backed Chickadee and has duller brown flanks and back. Other chickadees lack rufous backs and flanks.

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