Watching Birds Outside My Window © 2020, Neil A. Case There were two black-capped chickadees and a cardinal on the platform of the platform bird feeder outside the dining room window when I sat down to breakfast this morning. There was a white-breasted nuthatch on the roof of the feeder. There was a downy woodpecker on the suet cage hanging under the eave and a red-bellied woodpecker on the nearby peanut feeder. Black-capped chickadee, cardinal, white-breasted nuthatch, downy and red-bellied

White Breasted Nuthatch Steve Byland woodpecker are all non-migrants, year round feeder birds at my home in northern Indiana. I see them every day I’m home, fall and winter, spring and summer, except when the weather is pouring rain, or snowing, or blowing a gale. A black-capped chickadee is an active little bird, about the size of a chipping sparrow. It’s aptly named having a black cap, and a black throat. It cheerily announces its name calling chick-a-dee chick-a-dee-dee-dee. It also has a second call, a totally different call, a high, two-note whistle, fee-bee, fee-bee. I used to be able to imitate that whistle and when I did, if I was in a woods, often black-caps answer and often fly to a tree or bush near me. But my whistle ain’t what it used to be. There is nothing musical or cheery about the call of a white-breasted nuthatch. It’s call is a nasal yank-yank-yank. There are other chickadees, Carolina, which I have seen in northern Indiana, actually on one of my bird feeders, but rarely, mountain chickadee, a bird of the Rocky Mountains, chestnut-backed, a bird of the West Coast, gray-headed, a bird of the far north, of Alaska and Asia, and boreal, another bird of the north, but only Canada, the forests of Canada. There are other nuthatches as well as other chickadees. There’s a red-breasted nuthatch, a more northern species, a brown-headed nuthatch, a more southern species, and a pygmy nuthatch, a bird of the Rocky Mountains. A red-breasted nuthatch has a reddish-brown breast and belly, instead of white like a white-breasted, and a black line through each eye. Occasionally a red-breasted nuthatch will wander south in fall or winter. I’ve seen a redbreast in Indiana, actually on one of my bird feeders, but like the Carolina chickadee, rarely. A tufted titmouse flew in to the platform feeder outside my dining room window, and another and another cardinal. A blue jay flew in and the other birds scattered. The blue jay feasted for a short time, then left, and the nuthatches, chickadees, titmice, and cardinals promptly returned. A mourning dove flew into the platform feeder. A mourning dove would have been a rare bird in northern Indiana in November a few years ago. However, more and more mourning doves aren’t migrating but are staying farther north Tufted Titmouse Cornell Labs through the winter. Black-capped chickadees and white-breasted nuthatches, cardinals and tufted titmice are seed eaters. Chickadees and nuthatches and tufted titmice also eat insects. They eat grape jelly which I put out when I see a Baltimore oriole in a tree or bush near my platform feeder. Chickadees and nuthatches nest in holes, like woodpeckers. Actually, they often nest in holes made by woodpeckers, after the woodpeckers have left of course, since their bills aren’t big and strong enough to chisel out holes for themselves. They also nest in holes made by rot including, sometimes, holes that are just depressions, open on top. I once found chickadees nesting in the top of a rotting stump. I enjoy watching the birds outside my windows. I enjoy watching birds anywhere. But I particularly enjoy watching them outside my windo when the weather is cold or rainy. I get a special thrill out of seeing a rare bird, a Carolina chickadee or a red-breasted nuthatch for example. Rare birds are also subjects for future articles.

To hear the song of a titmouse, open the following link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOab9Z8YcBo