Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapilla) Alec Lindsay
Lake Erie Metropark, Wayne Co., MI 10/30/2008 © Jerry Jourdan This species is sponsored by: Petoskey Regional Audubon Society (Click to view a comparison of Atlas I to II)
Ubiquitous, social, and tolerant of human Province of Ontario. Their southern range extends only partially across Illinois, Indiana activities, Black-capped Chickadees are and Ohio, where the Carolina Chickadee arguably among Michigan’s most easily becomes more common. recognized birds. Year-round residents of urban, rural and wilderness habitats, Black-capped Distribution chickadees are also regular visitors to bird Some of the earliest accounts of chickadees in feeders. Unlike many other “feeder birds,” Michigan (Barrows 1912) indicate chickadees chickadees are a scatter-hoarding species, have been breeding across both peninsulas of storing individual food items in thousands of the state for a long period. Black-capped caches that they remember and return to over Chickadee distribution changed slightly between long periods of time (Hitchcock and Sherry the two Atlas periods. Chickadees were reported 1990). For a small bodied bird like a chickadee, from over 3,700 Atlas blocks during MBBA II, supplemental feeding can have positive impacts compared with over 4,100 blocks in MBBA I. on winter survival (Wilson 2001). Chickadees Reports of chickadees were clearly widespread typically spend the fall and winter months in across the state, yet fewer than a quarter of larger chickadee flocks with linear dominance reports were confirmed breeding records. With hierarchies, where males dominate females and the exception of Lenawee and Hillsdale older birds dominate new recruits (Glase 1973). counties, confirmed breeding records were Nuthatches, woodpeckers, brown creepers and reported for all of Michigan’s counties during kinglets will often join chickadee flocks during both the first and second Atlas periods. Lenawee winter foraging. and Hillsdale counties showed scant evidence of
chickadee breeding in both Atlas efforts (with The geographical range of Black-capped no confirmed records in the second effort), in Chickadees stretches from the West Coast to the rough agreement with 1970-1989 Breeding Bird Eastern Seaboard of North America, from as far Survey data. The percentage of Atlas blocks north as Alaska and Newfoundland to as far with evidence of chickadee breeding declined south as northern California and Pennsylvania. from 58% in the first Atlas to 52% in the second Near Michigan, Black-capped Chickadees are Atlas, but at the township level, the remarkably residents across the state of Wisconsin and the
© 2011 Kalamazoo Nature Center Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapilla) Alec Lindsay high percentage of Atlas townships with population increases recorded across the broader breeding records in both Atlases (90%+) region (i.e. USFWS Region 3). confirms what casual observers and backyard birders already know: chickadees are common With chickadees, what is perhaps more across the entire Michigan landscape. interesting than where they were found breeding is the places where they were not found Breeding Biology breeding. In fact, some townships (during both In late spring and summer, breeding pairs of Atlases) lacked confirmed evidence of chickadees excavate nest cavities in dead chickadee breeding activity. This is especially branches or tree snags and raise a single (rarely true for some of the townships in southeast more) clutch of offspring. These family units Michigan during both Atlases, and some remain together for a few weeks after the young townships in the western Upper Peninsula fledge until one day the juveniles disperse some during MBBA II. Two different factors are distance away (Weise and Meyer 1979), but potential causes for the limited evidence of usually not more than a few kilometers. Both breeding chickadees in these areas. First, heavy males and females excavate cavities, but nests agricultural activities in counties like Hillsdale, are built exclusively by females (Smith 1993). Huron and Lenawee reduce the number of Pairs rarely reuse nests between nesting available nest sites (i.e., fewer suitable trees for attempts or between breeding seasons. cavity excavation), likely leading to reduced Chickadees are socially monogamous when breeding in these areas. Further, although nesting, but both males and females will chickadees can be found in forest edges and frequently seek copulations from individuals other disturbed habitats, forest edges create other than their social mate. Otter et al. (1998) harsher microclimates in cold and windy found that up to 30% of nests can include conditions and chickadees will avoid them offspring sired by males other than the attending (Grubb 1977, Yahner 1987), making habitats father and that in soliciting extra-pair matings, dominated by agriculture less appealing to females preferentially seek the copulations from breeding chickadees. At the other end of the flock mates who rank higher than their social state, the limited evidence of breeding mate. chickadees in the western Upper Peninsula, seen mainly in Gogebic and Ontonagon counties, is Abundance and Population Trends likely due to inaccessible Atlas blocks (Click to view trends from the BBS) embedded in the Ottawa National Forest rather Although the declines in reported numbers are than any shortcomings in habitat quality. These conspicuous, it is more likely that reported counties received increased Atlas effort between declines are an artifact of variable efforts put the first and the second Atlas periods, but large forth between the two surveys, rather than a tracts of forest in these counties remain remote reflection of actual population changes. Recent and relatively inaccessible. BBS data indicate that Michigan ranks among the top ten states and provinces for total Black- Conservation Needs capped Chickadee population size, and densities Black-capped Chickadee populations appear to are higher in Michigan than most other states. be stable in Michigan and they are not listed by North American Breeding Bird Survey data any state, federal or conservation agency as a from 1983-2007 show a general, although non- species of special concern. Local populations do significant, trend of increasing chickadee not seem to have changed demonstrably since numbers in Michigan (Sauer et al. 2011). This the first Atlas effort. It is noteworthy that on an trend parallels the significant chickadee individual and population level, habitat
© 2011 Kalamazoo Nature Center Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapilla) Alec Lindsay modification and supplemental feeding by insects: indirect effects on sugar maple humans can have negative and positive effects, saplings. Oecologia 125: 370-379. respectively, on winter survival in chickadees. Sauer, J., J.E. Hines, J. Fallon, K. Pardieck, D. As a broader conservation interest, the heavy Ziolkowski, Jr., and W. Link. 2011. The consumption of plant-eating insects by North American Breeding Bird Survey, chickadees, including larvae and eggs of tent Results and Analysis 1966 - 2009. Version caterpillars and gypsy moths (Heinrich and 3.23.2011. USGS Patuxent Wildlife Collins 1983), coupled with their ubiquitous Research Center, Laurel, Maryland, USA. presence as year round Michigan resident birds, Weise, C. M., and J.R. Meyer. 1979. Juvenile implies that Black-capped Chickadees may play dispersal and development of site-fidelity in a significant role in Michigan’s forest health the Black-capped Chickadee. Auk 96:40-55 (Strong et al. 2000). Wilson, W.H. 2001. The effects of supplemental feeding on wintering black- Literature Cited capped chickadees (Poecile atricapilla) in central Maine: population and individual Barrows, W.B. 1912. Michigan Bird Life. responses. Wilson Bulletin 113: 65-72. Special Bulletin. Michigan Agricultural Yahner, R.H. 1987. Use of even-aged stands College, Lansing, Michigan, USA. by winter and spring bird communities. Glase, J.C. 1973. Ecology of social Wilson Bulletin 99: 218-232. organization in the black-capped chickadee. Living Bird 12: 235-267. Grubb, T.C. 1977. Weather dependent foraging Suggested Citation behavior of some birds wintering in a deciduous woodland: horizontal Lindsay, A. 2011. Black-capped Chickadee adjustments. Condor 79: 271-274. (Poecile atricapilla). in A.T. Chartier, J.J. Heinrich, B. and S. L. Collins. 1983. Baldy, and J.M. Brenneman, editors. The Caterpillar leaf damage and the game of Second Michigan Breeding Bird Atlas. hide-and-seek with birds. Ecology 64:592- Kalamazoo Nature Center. Kalamazoo, 602. Michigan, USA. Accessed online at: Hitchcock, C.L. and D.F. Sherry. 1990. Long-
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