Chestnut-backed Chickadee Sounds

Overview
ID info
Life History
Maps
Sounds

Song
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California, March 27, 2009Recorded by Nathan Pieplow
Calls
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California, July 26, 1961Recorded by Charles A. Sutherland / Macaulay Library
Song
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California, September 27, 2012Recorded by Nathan Pieplow
Calls
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California, January 11, 2009Recorded by Andrew Spencer / Macaulay Library
Calls
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Washington, June 02, 2018Recorded by Bruce Lagerquist / Macaulay Library
Calls
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CaliforniaRecorded by Thomas G. Sander / Macaulay Library
Calls
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California, May 22, 2020Recorded by Paul Fenwick / Macaulay Library
Calls
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Washington, April 20, 2011Recorded by Andrew Spencer / Macaulay Library
Calls
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California, January 11, 2009Recorded by Andrew Spencer / Macaulay Library
Calls
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California, April 25, 2020Recorded by Paul Fenwick / Macaulay Library
Calls
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Oregon, May 07, 1989Recorded by Geoffrey A. Keller / Macaulay Library
Flock calls
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California, January 28, 2017Recorded by Paul Marvin / Macaulay Library

Sounds provided by Macaulay Library.
Listen to more sounds of this species from the ML archive.

Songs

Chestnut-backed Chickadees don’t have the clear-whistled fee-bee song that most other chickadees use. Instead it has a song, given rarely, that consists of a series of “gargle” calls.

Calls

The main call of the Chestnut-backed Chickadee is a high, thin, scratchy chick-a-dee, 1-1.5 seconds long. The number of dee notes is variable, but typically fewer than in the Black-capped Chickadee’s call. The Chestnut-backed Chickadee’s other common call is the gargle, a jumble of short clicks often dropping in pitch and ending on a longer note. The whole call lasts about a second. It’s typically used to defend territories or to signal aggression by birds in a flock.

Other Sounds

Incubating adults and near-to-fledging nestlings hiss at intruders to the nest, accompanying this snake-like sound with a sharp slap of the wing against the walls of the nest cavity.