Mountain Chickadee

Poecile gambeli

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family PARIDAE

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

The Mountain Chickadee is one of the most common birds of the Western montane coniferous forests. It is distinguished from all other North American chickadees by its white eyestripe.

Cool Facts

• The nest cup of a Mountain Chickadee is molded in fur and then plugged with looser fur. The unincubated eggs are covered with the fur plug while the female is not in the nest.

• Juvenile Mountain Chickadees leave their home territories about three weeks after fledging. The young birds settle in a new area by late summer, and usually remain in that spot all their lives.

• Like many members of its family the Mountain Chickadee hides food to eat later. It hides seeds and occasionally insects under bark, in pine needle clusters, and in the ground. An unusual cache site was inside a moth cocoon, where the seeds forced into it killed the pupae inside.

Description

• Size: 12-14 cm (5-6 in)
• Weight: 8-14 g (0.28-0.49 ounces)

• Small, short-billed bird.
• Black cap.
• Black bib.
• White cheeks.
• White eyestripe.

• Back is unstreaked gray, wings and tail are dark grayish.
• Underparts grayish white.
• Tail rather long.

Sex Differences

Sexes alike.

Immature

Juvenile similar to adult.

Similar Species

• Only chickadee with white eyestripe.
• Bridled Titmouse has a tuft and a black line encircling the face and connecting the eyeline with the bib.

Sound

Calls a scratchy "chick-a-dee-dee." Song a series of two to six clear whistles.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Resident from southern Yukon through mountains southward to California, Baja California, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Winter Range

Resident in breeding range, but in some winters occurs outside normal range. For a description of one irruption detected by FeederWatch data, click here.

Habitat

Montane coniferous forests.

Food

Insects, spiders, and seeds.

Behavior

Foraging

Gleans insects from foliage and tree bark, often by hanging upside down. Pecks at food by grasping it under its feet against a branch. Readily uses bird feeders.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest in holes, typically in dead trees or rotten branches. Will use nest boxes. Nest within hole made of coarse materials such as moss, lined with hair or plant fibers.

Egg Description

White marked with fine spots of reddish brown, often concentrated around larger end.

Clutch Size

7 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless with tufts of down.

Conservation Status

Uses bird feeders and birdhouses. Declining in part of range.

Other Names

Mésange de Gambel (French)
Carbonero ceja blanca (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

McCallum, D. A., R. Grundel, and D. L. Dahlsten. 1999. Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli). In The Birds of North America, No. 453 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.