Black Capped Chickadee

Fred and I have been watching a pair of blacked capped chickadees since February checking out a birdhouse the we placed on our back deck railing the end of last year. We were going to move it come spring time, but a male and female black capped chickadee decided to make it their home to raise their young.

Black capped chickadees in New England start to pair off around February with the mating season. We watched them diligently bringing wood chips day after day to their new home to build their nest. We can now identify the male from the female as the male is longer and heavier.

Their breeding season is done now, the typical breeding season for New England Chickadees is between April and May. Once the nest has been built, egg laying begins. These Chickadees breed once a year.

For days now when we go out on the back deck our male and female Chickadee make it a point to screech at us from the tree that they do not like our presence. Their song "chicka-dee-dee-dee" can be suttle or extremely loud depending on how much we have scared them. Today, however, we were able to actually sit out on the deck, they are finally getting use to us.

We are hoping that there are the normal 6-8 eggs in the nest they built and in 5-7 weeks baby Chickadees will be flying away to begin their own life cycle. Check out our pictures, we think this is the male Chickadee and the female Chickadee is inside sitting on the eggs. Stay tuned, I am sure we will be able to get more pictures for you to see.