Measurements
Both Sexes
- Length
- 4.3–5.5 in
11–14 cm - Weight
- 0.4 oz
11 g
Relative Size
- Same size as Black-capped Chickadee.
Other Names
- Mésange de Gambel (French)
- Carbonero ceja blanca (Spanish)
Cool Facts
- Energetic models suggest that a half-ounce chickadee needs to eat about 10 calories per day to survive. That’s equivalent to about one-twentieth of an ounce of peanut butter.
- Chickadees will busily store food for later when they find a ready supply, such as your bird feeder. If you offer them sunflower seeds they’ll usually shell the seed first by holding it between their feet and hammering it apart with their beak. Then they'll fly off to stash it.
- The evergreen forests of the Western mountains periodically suffer massive outbreaks of tree-killing insects such as bark beetles and needle miners. When this happens, it’s all-you-can-eat for Mountain Chickadees. During a lodgepole needle miner outbreak in Arizona, one chickadee was found with 275 of the tiny caterpillars in its stomach at one time.
- Mountain Chickadees incubate their eggs almost a full week longer than their near-twins, the Black-capped Chickadees do. Some scientists think this is an evolutionary change that’s been made possible by Mountain Chickadees’ tendency to nest inside harder-walled trees, which are safer from predators.
Habitat
Forest
Common across most of the evergreen forests of Western mountains, particularly pine, mixed conifer, spruce-fir, and pinyon-juniper forests. Mountain Chickadees use conifers heavily, typically leaving deciduous stands to the Black-capped Chickadee. The exception is in nesting, when Mountain Chickadees will seek out any available aspen trees for their soft, easily excavated wood.
Food
Insects
Mountain Chickadees eat protein-rich insects and spiders during warm months, supplementing them with seeds and nuts as available. They come to bird feeders all year round. Many kinds of insects are eaten, including beetles, caterpillars, wasp larvae, aphids, and leafhoppers, as well as hard-to-reach scale insects and fly larvae hidden in plant galls. In fall and winter, seeds of montane pine species are very important.
Nesting
Nesting Facts
- Clutch Size
- 5–9 eggs
- Egg Length
- 0.6 in
1.6 cm - Egg Width
- 0.5 in
1.2 cm - Incubation Period
- 12–15 days
- Nestling Period
- 17–23 days
- Egg Description
- Flat white, sometimes speckled with red.
- Condition at Hatching
- Naked, eyes closed, with tufts of down on head and along spine.
Nest Description
Inside the cavity the female makes a neat cup from fur she gathers. She also makes a fur plug or cap that she uses to cover her eggs when she leaves the cavity. In some cases chickadees compensate for large cavities by filling them several inches deep with insulating material.
Nest Placement
Cavity
Mountain Chickadees nest in cavities but they can’t excavate them unless the wood is very soft. Instead, they rely on holes made by other birds such as small woodpeckers and nuthatches. They also nest in natural crevices, in nest boxes, and occasionally on the ground amid roots.
© René Corado / WFVZ
© René Corado / WFVZ
Behavior
Foliage Gleaner
Like other chickadees, Mountain Chickadees are quick, agile, curious birds that hop and flit through the outer twigs as they look for insects and seeds, often accompanied by several other species. As summer draws to a close, Mountain Chickadees band together into groups of up to three pairs of adults plus a variety of young birds. These juveniles have spent some time after fledging traveling in their own groups, but by September they typically join a group of adults and remain in that flock for the winter. In late winter, pairs begin to break away from foraging flocks to inspect possible nest sites. At feeders, chickadees have a distinct pecking order, with males typically forcing females aside except early in the breeding season. On cold, sunny mornings, Mountain Chickadees catch a little extra warmth by "sunbathing" on an exposed perch out of the wind. Unlike some other species, Mountain Chickadees typically brave the cold winter nights alone, huddled in foliage clumps or under big flakes of bark.
Conservation
Least Concern
Uses bird feeders and birdhouses. Declining in part of range.
Credits
- Dunne, P. 2006. Pete Dunne’s essential field guide companion. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.
- Mccallum, D. Archibald, Ralph Grundel and Donald L. Dahlsten. 1999. Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/453
- Patuxent Wildlife Research Center Longevity Records: http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bBL/homepage/long4930.htm
Migration
Resident, but may move to lower elevations in winter.
Backyard Tips
Mountain Chickadees eagerly come to feeders. Like many feeder birds, they will often disregard millet in bird seed mixes. Feed them black oil sunflower seeds instead. In winter, they’ll also eat suet and peanut butter.
Our guidelines for feeding birds in your yard (and more tips)
Find This Bird
Turn onto a Forest Service road and take it up into the mountains to your favorite trailhead. Within a few minutes of getting out of your car, you'll likely run into a flock of small birds flitting through the treetop. Mountain Chickadees are likely to be among them.