Real-Life Communication
Chickadees, the small birds with the familiar chicka-dee-dee-dee
call, forage in conifer forests. Most people are familiar with the black-capped
chickadee. As an ornithologist, you are interested in writing a scientific
paper on the chestnut-backed chickadee.
"Depending on the type of work
you are doing, we have to write a lot of technical papers and write scientific
reports that will be published in journals," says Ron Rohrbaugh, an ornithologist.
You
walk into the edge of a conifer forest near the Pacific coast and hear the
rapid chicka-dee-dee-dee call. You have found the chickadee. But is it the
chestnut-backed or the black-capped chickadee?
You catch a glimpse
of one of the birds flying past, and estimate that it is five inches long.
Its head has a black cap. You don't see much more. Searching, you find a chickadee
nest in a rotten stump that has five creamy white eggs with light-colored
spots on them. Finally, you spot a few of the birds again, way up near the
top of the conifer trees, and hear a simple tsee-dee call.
Have you
discovered the chestnut-backed chickadee or the black-capped chickadee?
Use
the following information to find out:
Chestnut-Backed Chickadee
- Four to five inches long
- Dusky, black capped and black backed, with chestnut flanks and back
- Call sound: chicka-dee-dee-dee. Often a bit faster than other types of
chickadees. Also calls a simple tsee-dee
- Lives in Pacific rainforest, moist area with conifers
- Nest has five to eight creamy white, lightly spotted eggs in natural cavity
-- or it excavates rotten stumps and fills it with moss and hair
- Lives in the upper half of trees in a conifer forest
Black-Capped Chickadee
- Four to six inches long
- Black throat patch and cap, gray above, creamy below
- Rapid chicka-dee-dee-dee call. Spring song of the male is a slow fee-bee,
two-tone call
- Lives in woods and the edges of coniferous forests
- Nests have four to seven creamy white, lightly spotted eggs found in a
natural cavity or rotten stump
- Lives in lower parts of trees, especially oaks. It doesn't live in the
upper portion of a conifer forest