Feathered Friday: Black-capped Chickadee

Today we add another family of birds to our growing Online Life List--Family Paridae. Now let's meet one of its members: the Black-capped Chickadee.



I selected the chickadee to feature this week because I just discovered something new about this species, one of my favorite birds. What did I discover?  A new song!  I thought I knew most if not all of this bird's vocalizations, but I was wrong.  Specifically, I knew that his call is "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" and that his song is typically a two-syllable vocalization that sounds like "fee-bee."  But all my years living in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania (I now live in Adams County), I never noted another of the chickadee's songs, one that to my ear sounds like "cheeseburger."

For months I've been listening to birds (in the woodland behind my property) singing "cheeseburger, cheeseburger," but I could never spot them with my binoculars. So the other day I went online and searched Google with the question, "What birdsong sounds like "cheeseburger."  And would you believe it?  I found several web pages and Youtube videos, all attributing this song to the Black-capped Chickadee. (Listen to a Youtube video I found online.)

Now how is it possible that I'd never heard this particular chickadee song before moving to Gettysburg? Could it be a regional difference? For instance,  do chickadees in the Gettysburg area sing "cheeseburger" but not those a few hours north where I used to live? I'm tempted to think so because this "cheeseburger" song is SO conspicuous that I most definitely would have heard it before now.  Too, the song must be seasonal as well, since my wintering chickadees were not singing "cheeseburger, cheeseburger."  (But then most birds sing only during breeding season; during non-breeding season their vocalizations are generally calls.)

Listen to the video below and see what you can hear.



Until next time . . . Keep birds in your heart!

Georgia Anne