Attracting chickadees to your feeders.

OK - so sorry. Time has gone so quickly and I have not kept up with my blog. However, I am starting anew and will attempt to be more bloggy in the future.

My topic for today is attracting chickadees to your backyard.

One of the most popular backyard birds is the chickadee. Small and energetic, these friendly little birds can become quite tame and may even be coaxed to eat out of your hand eventually (with enough time and patience).

Chickadees usually are present in small flocks and spend their winter days looking for food. This includes hunting through tree bark crevices for dormant insects or visiting your feeder. They love suet and particularly sunflower seed. When you watch chickadees eating, you will notice there is a rigid social structure for feeding with the dominant birds eating first and the juvenile birds eating last.

The two most common types of chickadees found in the most populated areas of Canada are: the Black-capped Chickadee and the Mountain Chickadee. The Black-capped Chickadee is found across southern Canada while the Mountain Chickadee (which is grayer than the Black-capped Chickadee and has a distinct white eyebrow) is typically found in the rocky mountain areas of Alberta and BC. Less common than these two is the Boreal chickadee which looks quite different with a brown crown, grey neck and reddish brown body. It can be found mainly in the far-northern or high-altitude boreal spruce-fir forest areas of Canada. Interestingly, the boreal chickadee does not usually eat sunflower seed like their relatives but is especially fond of suet.

To attract chickadees, set up a suet feeder and a black oil sunflower feeder close to bushes or other trees. Chickadees will fly to a feeder, take one seed and fly off to eat it or hide the seed. When food is plentiful, chickadees will create little food stashes. Research has shown that they can remember where these hidden food stashes are for at least 28 days.

A welcome addition to your backyard, many chickadees will stay one location year round. So if you can attract chickadees to your backyard, they will often be there to stay.