by Clark Tate
Nothing accentuates the cool shade and muted tones of a dense forest quite like the conversational call chick-a-dee. If the twittering emanated from a diminutive form sporting white checks oreoed between a dark brown or black cap and throat with a chestnut-colored back, say hello to your neighborhood chestnut-backed chickadee. In the Great Chickadee Treaty divvying up North America, this chipper bird got the prize of the West Coast. We jest, of course, but the chestnut-backed chickadee does inhabit wet coniferous forests, streamside willows, and suburban ornamental shrubs in ribbon of land that hugs the Pacific from southern California to southern Alaska. The chances of spying one are good, as its population is considered stable. While the chickadee does not migrate, it does move higher into the mountains during the summer, returning to the lowlands come winter.
The smallest of the chickadees, the chestnut-backed measures about 4.5 inches in length and flits about on rounded wings roughly 7.5 inches across, weighing a meager 0.2 to 0.4 ounces. Though territorial during the breeding season, they often forage with flocks of titmice, kinglets, nuthatches and, of course, other chickadees. They eat seeds, insects, spiders, and berries, often caching seeds for hard times. Lithe, they sometimes hang upside down from pinecones in their search of food.
Not ones to skimp on luxury, chestnut-backed chickadee mothers line their nests with fur from rabbits, coyotes, cats, or even skunks to warm their eggs while they are out and about. They build their nests in natural cavities, those they excavate themselves, or old woodpecker holes in dead trees or branches. Forest management practices that remove such material affect breeding success rates. Cavity nesting increases the security of the nest but mice, squirrels, weasels, snakes and even black bears still raid the nests. The oldest known chestnut-backed chickadee darted its way through 9.5 years.
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