Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson XIII · Topic 2: Bird study: birds to know
13. The chickadee
Goal: Your child can recognize the chickadee by its black cap and bib and its call, and describe how it hunts on twigs in winter.
You'll need
- A suet feeder or a lump of suet on a tree near a window
- Binoculars (optional)
- Nature notebook and pencil
What's in the book
The leading thought, the method (put beef fat on trees near the schoolhouse in December) and nine questions about where the chickadees are seen, their songs (including "fee-bee"), colors and size, bill and winter food, where they alight, how to tell them from nuthatches, their cheer in snow, their nest and their use to trees. A little musical score of the chickadee's notes is printed below.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Winter is chickadee season. Comstock started her feeding in December and kept it up all winter. Chickadees come to almost any feeder near trees, in towns and in the country. (In the South, look for the Carolina chickadee; in the West, the mountain chickadee.)
Keep the big idea in mind
Read this to yourself:
The chickadee is as useful as it is delightful; it remains in the North during winter, working hard to clear our trees of insect eggs and singing cheerily all day.
Set out the suet
Put beef fat on the trees near the schoolhouse in December and replenish it afresh about every two or three weeks.
A store-bought suet cake in a cage works the same way. Take it down in warm weather.
Listen
What is the common song of the chickadee? What other notes has it?
Have you heard it sing "fee-bee, fee-bee." How does this song differ from that of the phoebe-bird?
The chickadee says its own name: "chick-a-dee-dee-dee." On sunny late-winter days, listen for a clear whistled "fee-bee."
Look
What is the color of the chickadee: Top and sides of head, back, wings, tail, throat, breast, under parts?
Does the chickadee usually alight on the ends of the branches or on the larger portions near the trunk of the tree?
How can you distinguish the chickadees from their companions, the nuthatches?
Brave little bird
Does the chickadee ever seem discouraged by the snow and cold weather?
On a cold day, watch how puffed-up its feathers are. That is its winter coat, like the hen's down in Lesson I.
Put it into words
Ask your child to tell you how to know a chickadee by sight and by sound. Then share the leading thought.
Nature notebook
Draw a chickadee hanging upside down from a twig, with its black cap and bib. Write its song the way your child hears it.
Afterwards
Keep the feeder going and count chickadees each day for a week. Try whistling "fee-bee" and see if one answers.
Tip
If you sit very still near a feeder with sunflower seeds on an open palm, chickadees sometimes land on your hand. It takes great patience.