Black Capped Chickadees are common visitors to backyard bird feeders, and creating a welcoming habitat is essential for attracting them. They are attracted to areas with dense coniferous forests, particularly those with tall spruce or fir trees.
To create a backyard habitat that will draw in Black Capped Chickadees, plant native shrubs like dogwood, hawthorn, or viburnum, which provide berries and seeds. These shrubs also offer shelter and nesting sites.
Black Capped Chickadees are particularly fond of suet, and providing high-energy suet feeders can be a great way to entice them to your yard.
Black Capped Chickadee Diet
During the breeding season, Black-capped Chickadees primarily eat animal matter, making up about 80-90% of their diet, with the rest consisting of fruit and seeds.
Their diet is dominated by caterpillars, which are a crucial food source for these birds. In fact, caterpillars comprise the largest portion of their diet.
In the winter, their diet shifts to about 50% animal matter, primarily insects and spiders, and 50% plant matter, mainly seeds and berries.
They forage on trees by gleaning insects off the bark and leaves, and rarely forage on the ground. Approximately 58% of their arthropod prey are taken from bark and 38.2% are taken from leaves.
Chickadees can use leaf damage cues to locate cryptic caterpillars, making them efficient foragers. This adaptability is essential for their survival.
In addition to insects and seeds, Black-capped Chickadees also eat small snails, small slugs, and centipedes. They're not picky eaters, and their diet reflects this.
Blueberries and blackberries are also part of their diet, as they're readily available and provide essential nutrients.
Creating a Backyard Habitat
Chickadees are some of the easiest birds to attract to backyards, and all they require is food, water, shelter, and a few convenient places to nest.
Their food preferences are very similar to what they eat in the wild, and caterpillars and insects are readily available in residential yards.
Feeders can offer a combination of black oil sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, shelled peanuts, safflower, almonds, pecans, mealworms, suet, and peanut butter, which are all chickadee favorites.
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Dabbing peanut butter and/or suet onto a tree trunk or wooden post creates some very interesting backyard bird-watching.
Chickadees are not bashful, and it's not uncommon for regular visitors to perch on human fingers and eat from an outstretched palm.
Sunflowers are easy to grow in a sunny garden, and the little birds happily dig their tiny talons into the flower's head and feast.
They have fun-loving personalities and provide hours of enjoyment.
Nesting and Breeding
Black-capped chickadees are devoted parents, with both males and females contributing to the care of their young. They typically nest in cavities like tree holes or nest boxes, often taking over an old nest from another bird species.
In the spring, a female black-capped chickadee lays 6-8 eggs in her nest, which are white with brown spots. She lays one egg per day, usually starting in late April or early May.
The female incubates the eggs for about 12 days, during which time the male brings her food and water. This is a crucial time for the chickadee family, as the female's energy reserves are depleted.
After the eggs hatch, both parents take turns feeding and caring for their young, which leave the nest about 18 days later. The parents continue to feed and care for their chicks for another week or two after they fledge.
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