Chestnut-backed Chickadee

The Chestnut-backed Chickadee is the most brightly colored of North America's chickadees, sporting a rich, warm chestnut-brown back and flanks that contrast with a blackish-brown cap, black bib, and white cheek patch. This coastal specialist inhabits the humid, moss-draped conifer forests of the Pacific Northwest and northern California, where its bright coloring and rapid, energetic movements make it a distinctive and cheerful presence.

Like other chickadees, it is highly active and acrobatic, often the most numerous small songbird in mixed foraging flocks moving through coastal forest canopy.

Key Field Marks

• Chestnut-brown back and flanks
• Dark brown to blackish cap (duller than a true black cap)
• Black throat bib
• White cheek patch
• Small size, short tail

Similar Species

• Black-capped Chickadee: has a solid black cap and gray (not chestnut) back and flanks.
• Boreal Chickadee: has a brown cap and chestnut flanks but a grayish-brown (not chestnut) back, and occurs farther inland/north.
• Mountain Chickadee: has a white eyebrow stripe and gray body, quite different from the chestnut tones of this species.

Habitat

This species favors humid coniferous and mixed forests, especially those with dense understory, including redwood, Douglas-fir, and spruce-hemlock forests near the coast.

Range

The Chestnut-backed Chickadee is found along the Pacific coast and coastal mountain ranges from southern Alaska through British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and into central California, with an isolated population in the central Sierra Nevada.

Migration

The species is largely non-migratory, remaining resident within its coastal forest range year-round, though some local elevational movement can occur in harsh winters.

Behavior

Chestnut-backed Chickadees forage energetically and acrobatically through dense conifer foliage, often in the company of other small songbirds such as kinglets, nuthatches, and warblers in mixed flocks.

Voice

The call is a high, rapid, buzzy "tsick-a-dee-dee" that is faster and higher-pitched than a Black-capped Chickadee's; it lacks a clear whistled song, relying mainly on calls for communication.

Feeding

Diet consists mainly of insects and spiders gleaned from bark and foliage, supplemented by conifer seeds, especially in winter, and readily visits feeders for sunflower seeds and suet.

Nesting

Nests are placed in tree cavities, either natural, old woodpecker holes, or excavated by the birds in soft rotten wood, often lined thickly with moss, fur, and feathers. Clutches typically number 6-7 eggs.