The next time you hear a familiar “chick a dee dee dee”, listen closely, because a chickadee’s call can tell you a lot. Biologists have discovered that the more “dees” there are in a Black-capped Chickadee’s warning call, the more dangerous the predator.
One very threatening predator is the pygmy owl. Its prey is often small birds, and they are able to maneuver swiftly enough to capture a chickadee. When scientists tethered these birds close to chickadees in a test environment, they caused the chickadees to add as many as 23 “dees” to their warning calls!
Larger predators that don’t maneuver well and don’t cause much of a threat to chickadees only warranted an additional 3 or 4 “dees!” Chickadees also have a quiet “seet” call, which is believed to warn others of flying raptors. In fact, biologists have actually recognized more than 30 variations in chickadee songs and calls.
There are seven species of chickadees found in North America. The Black Capped Chickadee of the north was once called the Appalachian Chickadee, while the Mountain Chickadee of the Rockies and west was once called Bailey’s Chickadee–and the Chestnut-sided or Chestnut-backed Chickadee of the northwest coast was once named Barlow’s. Chickadees are in the same family as the Tits of Europe and Africa and the well known American Titmouse.
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