Black-capped Chickadee

Chickadees are generally recognized as the cutest birds in Vancouver, and are probably featuring on many of your holiday cards! The Black-capped Chickadee is the most common of two chickadees seen here in the city (the other is the Chestnut-backed) and seven (including Mountain, Boreal, Carolina, Mexican, and Gray-headed) found on the continent. The Black-capped Chickadee was voted VanCity Bird in 2015, so this blog would never be complete without it!

Most of these seven chickadees call out their names – chicka-dee-dee-dee-dee – but species each have their own voices. The Mountain Chickadee, for instance, sounds like a chain smoker: chicka-zee-zee-zee-zee. This is usually an alarm call, with more dees signifying greater danger. Often other birds will hang out with chickadees and will respond to their alarm calls even if they don’t have an alarm call of their own.

Chickadees are non-migratory birds, which is why we continue to see them throughout the holiday season. Especially when the mercury drops below freezing, they’re common visitors to our bird feeder. I saw this bird on December 25 in our back yard.