Bird of the Day #1

I’ve been meaning to start sending out bird of the day e-mails and have finally gotten to it. I know that complete field guide to North American birds can be intimidating with its 700+ species so I am going to introduce you to a few of the birds that are likely to be seen in Jackson Hole one at a time. This, coupled with the ornithology portion of the advanced elements of field natural history course, and the voluntary morning naturalist walks that I will start in April, should help to familiarize you with the local birds at a more friendly pace and hopefully help you to gain a love (or at least a like) for birds.

Most days I will cover one bird at a time but in some cases, like today, I will cover two because of their similarity. Today, I would like each of you to meet the Black-capped and Mountain Chickadees. Ornithologists use 4 letter codes that usually include some version of the first two letters in the first part of the name and the first two letters in the second part of the name to help them rapidly take notes in the field. The abbreviations for these birds are BCCH (Black-capped Chickadee) and MOCH (Mountain Chickadee).

Both of these species are year round residents of the Kelly campus and are cavity nesters. During the non-breeding season (fall, winter, early spring) they are almost always in flocks, sometimes single species, but frequently in mixed species flocks. Their diet consists mostly of insects that they glean (foraging term) off of bark and foliage.

Chickadees are onomatopoeia bird, meaning that their name sounds like their vocalizations (it sounds like chick-a-dee dee dee), which are nearly identical but if you see them, they can easily be separated by the white stripe above the eye on the head of the Mountain Chickadee.

Black-capped Chickadee image from Learn Bird Songs.

Mountain Chickadee image from Utah Birds.