CHICKADEE

If you keep up a bird feeder as about 80 million American's do each winter and if you live in the northern states of the United States you're likely to recognize what a CHICKADEE is when you see one.

They are a peewee compared to a hawk attired smartly with a black cap, mask and bib. They are active, smart and fun to observe. Different people often have distinct feelings concerning the value of particular birds like crows, blue jays and sea gulls. I never heard an unfavorable expression about CHICKADEES. I presume their attractive feathers and antics play a part in what people think about them.

CHICKADEES are generally the first birds to appear at your sunflower seed feeder at daybreak. You could almost believe that vendors sell the sunflower seeds just for CHICKADEES. Altogether people buy about a billion pounds of seed each year in the United States.

Not only do CHICKADEES appear as common as dandelions but they all look alike, at least to us non- chickadee lovers. Why? Because their attire is both unvaried and unisex. Yet, they are desirable to observe. Their very identity promotes a query: How do they tell the males from the females?

Some previous researchers suggested that the male CHICKADEE have a bigger area of black on their chest than the females. Later other bird watchers contradicted this thinking by looking closer at the CHICKADEES. Some birders ascertained that the male birds weighed a little more than the female. This idea lost creditability when proved you determine a bird's weight by how much they ate lately. Some researchers used DNA, but this is expensive.

A recent essay in the Journal of Wildlife Management summarizes how some scientists studied CHICKADEE conduct in the Wisconsin forests by merely watching the birds without recognizing their sex. They netted, leg banded and then released these banded birds so they could keep track of them and left the area until spring time.

In the spring breeding season the male CHICKADEE makes a specific gurgling call that presumably expresses aggression. I never heard the call but it is a bird's rendition of what you might hear at a corner bar on Saturday night. Once a male CHICKADEE expressed his spring song within hearing distance of the bird watchers, the birder wrote the word male beside the leg banded code figure in the birder's record book.

I favor this manner of observing the birds than the others. Not only because it is harmless but also it demands that a birder watch their birds sufficiently to know them on a personal basis. Each is bird is distinctive and doesn't portray any others

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