Chickadee

For other uses, see Chickadee (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Chickaree.
Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Poecile rufescens
Black-capped Chickadee, Poecile atricapillus
Two species of chickadees.

The chickadees are a group of North American birds in the family Paridae included in the genus Poecile. Species found in North America are referred to as chickadees; species found elsewhere in the world are called tits.[1][2] They are small-sized birds overall, usually having the crown of the head and throat patch distinctly darker than the body. They are at least 6 to 14 centimeters (2.4 to 5.5 inches) in size.

Their name reputedly comes from the fact that their calls make a distinctive "chick-a-dee-dee-dee",[3] though their normal call is actually "fee-bee," and the "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" call is an alarm call. The number of "dees" depends on the predator.[4]

The chickadee (specifically the black-capped chickadee Poecile atricapillus, formerly Parus atricapillus) is the official bird for the US state of Massachusetts,[5] the Canadian province of New Brunswick,[6] and the city of Calgary, Alberta.[7] The chickadee is also the state bird of Maine, but a species has never been specified. A proposed bill in 2019 would have named the black-capped chickadee as the official species for Maine, but was unanimously voted down in committee.[8][9] The de facto species for Maine remains the black-capped.

One holarctic species is referred to by a different name in each part of its range: grey-headed chickadee in North America and Siberian tit in Eurasia.

  1. ^ Heisman, Rebecca (January 4, 2022). "Beloved Backyard Bandits: An Introduction to Chickadees". American Bird Conservancy. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  2. ^ "Tit". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Merriam was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Chirpy chickadees signal deadliness of predators". New Scientist. 23 June 2005. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  5. ^ Massachusetts Facts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  6. ^ Government of New Brunswick, Canada (2020-06-17). "NB Symbols". www2.gnb.ca. Retrieved 2022-08-17.
  7. ^ Villani, Mark (14 May 2022). "Tweet it out! Calgary names official bird". ctvnews. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
  8. ^ "Maine lawmakers end the flap over Maine's state bird". Press Herald. 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  9. ^ WGME (2019-03-07). "Lawmakers kill bill over Maine's state bird". WGME. Retrieved 2024-04-11.