Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Carolina Chickadee in Snowy Holly

In addition to spending time with family and friends, the traditions that bring joy and inspiration to my winter days include making home-made suet for my feathered friends and painting birds in watercolor!
The Carolina Chickadee has a distinctive "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" call as it visits the suet and sunflower seed feeders with mixed flocks of titmice and Downy Woodpeckers.  They are year-round residents wherever they occur.  Tough little birds that survive through the harshest days of winter, they fluff their feathers with thousands of tiny muscles to trap air between feathers and provide insulation from the cold.  Some chickadee species also sleep in sheltered natural cavities and use regulated hypothermia to lower their body temperature and conserve energy.

Visit my blog post on Carolina Chickadee in Snowy Holly at Vickie's Sketchbook.
Click this link to learn more about the spritely Carolina Chickadee  from Cornell.

4 comments:

  1. Your Christmas chickadee is sweet. One winter morning one of my chickadees (Black-capped, not a Carolina chickadee) had a bent tail. I think he must have spent the night in crowed quarters.

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  2. I have been reading about chickadee wintering survival strategies and roosting in crevices and cavities to protect from wind and cold is one of them. Makes sense. Carolina Chickadees do this also when its really cold.

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  3. Vicki - this is so sensitive and delightful.

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  4. So delicate...I'm very fond of chickadees!

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