Carolina Chickadee
Poecile carolinensis
This tiny, plump-bodied, big-headed bird is a familiar woodland resident and backyard visitor in the southeastern U.S. The only chickadee in almost all of its range. Gray overall with contrasting head pattern: black cap, white cheek, and black throat. Short, stubby bill is used for hammering open seeds. Often the core of mixed flocks of songbirds. Visits feeders. Nearly identical to Black-capped Chickadee, but range barely overlaps. Especially note voice, duller gray wings, and less buffy coloration on flanks of Carolina. Beware that hybrids occur frequently in the overlap zone and some are best left unidentified.
Identification
Adults are 11.5–13 cm (4.5–5.1 in) long with a weight of 9–12 g (0.32–0.42 oz), and have a black cap and bib with white sides to the face. Their underparts are white with rusty brown on the flanks; their back is grey. They have a short dark bill, short wings and a moderately long tail. Very similar to the black-capped chickadee, the Carolina chickadee is distinguished by the slightly browner wing with the greater coverts brown (not whitish fringed) and the white fringing on the secondary feathers slightly less conspicuous; the tail is also slightly shorter and more square-ended. Without calls, visual distinction between the two species is very difficult even with an excellent view.<p>Eggs are about 1.5 cm (0.6 in) long and 1.1 cm (0.4 in) wide. Eggs are white with areas of reddish-brown ranging from dots to small blotches.
Taxonomy
The Carolina chickadee was often placed in the genus Parus with most other tits, but mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data and morphology suggest that separating Poecile more adequately expresses these birds' relationships. The American Ornithologists' Union has been treating Poecile as distinct genus since 1998. Although it and the black-capped chickadee most likely diverged about 2.5 million years ago, the birds still hybridize in the areas where their ranges overlap. The offspring of mated pairs of hybrid chickadees suffer from lower hatching success, and a male bias sex ratio, consistent with Haldane's rule.
- Scientific name
- Poecile carolinensis
- Authority
- (Audubon, 1834)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Paridae
- Genus
- Poecile
Range and habitat
Their breeding habitat is mixed or deciduous forests in the United States from New Jersey and Pennsylvania west to southern Kansas and south to Florida and Texas; there is a gap in the range at high altitudes in the Appalachian Mountains where they are replaced by their otherwise more northern relative, the black-capped chickadee.<p>They are permanent residents, not usually moving south even in severe winter weather.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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