Carolina Chickadee

Poecile carolinensis
Chickadee family (Paridae)

Habitat:
Deciduous forest.

Description:
A small songbird, 4 ¼” long.  Black cap and bib, white cheek, gray back, whitish-gray belly, whitish underparts may be tinged with gray or brown on flanks and under tail.

Nesting: 
Cavity nester.  Excavates a nest cavity in dead trees or in dead limbs of living trees.  Also nests in artificial nest boxes.  Eggs are white with reddish spots.  Clutch size – 6 eggs.

Voice:
Song is a whistled “fee-bee fee-bay”.  Call is the familiar “chick-a-dee-dee-dee”.

In the Nature Park:
Year-round resident.  Nests in the forest and also uses artificial nest boxes in the forest.  During winter, Carolina Chickadees occur in mixed-species foraging flocks with Tufted Titmice, White-breasted Nuthatches, and Downy Woodpeckers.