a-dee-dee-dee

Last night we read the last "Fall" story in Emily Stone's natural connections book. It was about chickadees and the author's efforts to handfeed chickadees sunflower seeds. We learned a couple of things we think are worth sharing, especially since a brief session with an internet search engine did not enable us to confirm any of the shared tidbits. We'll continue to work on it since what we read fascinated us.

• In order to maintain their normal 108 degree body temperature, chickadees must eat the caloric equivalent of 250 sunflower seeds each day. They gain up to 10 percent of their body weight in fat each day and burn it off each night to stay warm.
• Norwegian researchers found that the tit (a chickadee relative) caches up to 80,000 seeds in a single autumn.

black-capped chickadee in Winter

Photo by J. Harrington

Cornell's All About Birds web site provides no information on the quantity of food chickadees consume. Audubon's Field Guide web site also lacks caloric and related details. The BirdNote site informs us that "That perky little chickadee flitting back and forth for sunflower seeds from your feeder eats the equivalent of 35% of its weight."

We wonder where and how naturalists learn the multitude of intriguing details they share with us. No close observation would tell us a chickadees normal body temperature, yet the Sheldrake Environmental Center, in Larchmont, NY, notes that "Half the calories that a bird needs to survive a wintry day could be depleted in the act of shivering. A chickadee, for example, requires the equivalent of 65 sunflower seeds to survive a cold winter day." It would seem widely different sources are needed to account for the difference between caloric equivalent of 250 sunflower seeds and 65 seeds. Maybe, with the warmer weather in the forecast, we'll see if we can get a chickadee to feed out of our hand. Years ago we did that with a white-breasted nuthatch.

The Chickadee

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Piped a tiny voice hard by,
Gay and polite, a cheerful cry,
" Chic-chicadee-dee! " Saucy note
Out of a sound heart and a merry throat,
As if it said, " Good day, good sir.
Fine afternoon, old passenger!
Happy to meet you in these places
When January brings new faces! " 

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