Golden-fronted and golden-bellied

 

 

I encountered a small flock of Bushtits (Psaltriparus minimus) in a willow thicket in the late afternoon today (20 February 2023).  They were so covered in pollen that at first glance I thought they might be warblers!

 

Here's another individual:

 

 

 

 

And the Bushtits weren't the only ones — here's a Chestnut-backed Chickadee (Poecile rufescens) dusted with so much pollen that its belly is golden:

 

 

 

Autumn perch

 

Chestnut-backed Chickadee (Poecile rufescens) in our backyard in Cotati on 20 November 2017.  (It's nice to be back!)

Breakfast in the sweetgum

The birds returned for "breakfast" in the sweetgum this morning.  

When I lived in Massachusetts, I didn't see Pine Siskins that often, so it's been fun getting to know them better in California.

Here's a classic pose, hanging onto a sweetgum seed pod:

 

The siskins frequently feed upside down, and often in close proximity to each other:

 

After feeding, they will sometimes sit quietly in the sun with their eyes closed: 

 

The activity of the siskins attracted other birds.  While the siskins would roll the seeds around in their bills, the Chestnut-backed Chickadees had a slightly different feeding strategy.  They would extract a seed, then take it to a perch and hammer on the seed to separate it from its winged covering.

 

The Lesser Goldfinches also hung from the pods, and fed in a similar way to the siskins, maneuvering the seeds in their bills.  How many goldfinches can you find in the photo below?

 

[There are four goldfinches in the photo above — three near the center (top, middle, bottom), and one in the upper right corner.]

At the base of the mountains

We were in meetings for most of the day, but I snuck in a few pictures.  Here are three of my favorites from today:

 

Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli)

 

Least Chipmunk (Tamias minimus)

 

Shadow of a Red Admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta) on an aspen trunk (with sapsucker holes)

East of the Sierras

I'm at a meeting near Mammoth Lakes, CA, for a couple of days.  Here are a few pictures from the drive yesterday (taken from Route 89 and Route 395):

 

I stopped briefly to stretch at ~8,000 ft. along Route 89.  When I stepped out of the car, I heard Townsend's Solitaire's (Myadestes townsendi) singing!  (See one perched above.)  The next bird I heard was a Clark's Nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana), and then a Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli).  A nice trio!

 

Cloud shadows

 

 

This damselfly flew in and landed in the parking lot at a rest stop in Antelope Valley (Mono County).  It's either a Great Spreadwing (Archilestes grandis) or a California Spreadwing (Archilestes californicus).  It flew off, and I couldn't find it again, so I'll need to check in with some experts to see if they can identify it from this photo.

 

 Mountain snow 

 

Mono Lake

Extraction

 

This afternoon I watched some Chestnut-backed Chickadees (Poecile rufescens) feeding in pine trees near the Bodega Dunes campground.  Sometimes they extracted small seeds from the cones (see above, and next picture).

 

Other times, they pulled out the seed still embedded within the wing, and then landed elsewhere to extract the seed:

 

The chickadees worked really hard, occasionally wedging themselves in between cones.  It looked like they might have been using their feet to pry open the scales of the cones.

 

This was the object of their attention (next image).  The pine seed is within the dark area at the base of the wing.  I didn't time myself, but I'm guessing it took me quite a bit longer than a chickadee to find a seed: 

 

I've always struggled to get pictures of Chestnut-backed Chickadees.  Today it was fun to observe them feeding and to think about their seed-finding and extraction strategies.

 

Chick-a dee-tails

 

Black-capped Chickadee in Massachusetts on 24 February 2013

Although Black-capped Chickadees are common songbirds across much of North America, I tried to find a few fun details that you might not be as familiar with:

- Males and females are generally indistinguishable, but males tend to have longer wings and tails, deeper blacks, brighter whites, and broader black bibs.

- Most of their flights are apparently less than 15 meters (49 feet) long.  They tend to avoid crossing large open gaps.  I'll admit, I haven't ever thought of estimating chickadee flight distances myself (have you?), but it would be interesting to see if this measurement generally holds true!

- Individuals tend to join winter flocks and stay within the same flock throughout the winter.  They may also re-associate with the same flock in subsequent winters.

- Within winter flocks, there is a linear social dominance hierarchy — males tend to dominate over females and older birds tend to dominate over younger birds.

- Black-capped Chickadees embed information about predators in their calls — if all you've thought you were hearing was a simple chick-a-dee call, you might want to listen more closely the next time.  They'll call more often and add more "dee" notes for smaller, more threatening predators.  And they'll respond more quickly and call more frequently for predators that are closer rather than further away.

(Facts above from Birds of North America account by Foote et al. 2010.)

 

[Black-capped Chickadees aren't common in California.  I'm still new enough to The Golden State that I'm not totally familiar with their status in the 3rd largest of the U.S. states, but it looks like they only occur regularly in the northwest corner of California, primarily in Del Norte and Siskiyou counties (edging into Humboldt and Trinity counties).]

Jet black caps

 

I really like chickadees, but they're tough to photograph!  They're small, always on the move, and often hidden behind branches or leaves (at least whenever I try to take a picture of them).

The Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) pictured above was photographed near Rexhame Beach in Massachusetts on 23 December 2012.

After living in California for 8 years, and spending time with Chestnut-backed Chickadees (Poecile rufescens), I'm struck by the size difference between the two species.

Chestnut-backed Chickadees are the smallest of the 7 species of chickadees in North America.  They range from ~100-120 mm long, while Black-capped Chickadees measure ~123-145 mm long.

I still don't have great photos of Chestnut-backed Chickadees, but here are couple from Bodega Bay (below).  In the first image you can just barely see a hint of the chestnut color, but the second image shows off the chestnut on the back and along the sides.  (Compare this with the gray on the back of the Black-capped Chickadee above.)

 

 

Are you curious about the other 5 species of chickadees?  They include Boreal, Carolina, Gray-headed, Mexican, and Mountain chickadees.

Here's a little quiz — In which state can you see 5 species of chickadees?  (The answer is at the bottom of this post.)

Whichever species you encounter, it's always fun to watch these bright-eyed and energetic songbirds.

P.S.  Answer to quiz above: Alaska!  The five species of chickadees in Alaska include Black-capped, Boreal, Chestnut-backed, Gray-headed, and Mountain.