Birdfinding.info ⇒  One of the most abundant and familiar songbirds of North America, it frequents backyard bird feeders nearly throughout Canada and in the northern half of the U.S.  Especially abundant in the Northeast, including the Great Lakes, New York, New England, and the Maritime Provinces.

Black-capped Chickadee

Poecile atricapillus

Woodlands of northern and central North America.

Widespread in forests and woodlands, including urban and suburban neighborhoods, across the full breadth of North America from western Alaska to Newfoundland and south to northern California, southern Utah, northern New Mexico, southern Kansas, central Illinois, all of New England, and New York, most of Pennsylvania, and in the Appalachians south to western North Carolina.

Breeding Bird Survey Abundance Map: Black-capped Chickadee.  U.S. Geological Survey 2015

Mostly absent from the rain forest zone of coastal British Columbia and southeastern Alaska, and thinly distributed in the Rocky Mountains and Great Basin south of Montana.

In the Appalachians from south-central Pennsylvania to western North Carolina, Black-capped breeds at higher elevations than the Carolina Chickadee.  The threshold elevation varies from approximately 1,000 m to 1,800 m (generally becoming higher southward).

Mostly resident over most of its range, but with local winter movements downslope in the mountains and for short distances south of the usual breeding range.

Identification

The common chickadee of Canada and the northern U.S.  It overlaps with a few related species, but is readily confused only with the Carolina Chickadee in the eastern U.S.  Apart from a subtle difference in wing pattern, they are nearly identical.  (See below for a detailed comparison.)

Instantly recognized as a chickadee by its bold head pattern: a jet-black crown and throat with contrasting white cheeks.

Black-capped Chickadee, showing extensive white on the flight feathers and—diagnostically—on the inner portion of the greater wing coverts.  (Red Rock Canyon, Colorado Springs, Colorado; October 24, 2019.)  © Jim Merritt

The upperparts are mostly medium-gray, but vary somewhat from one population to another.  Some are cold shades of gray, and others are more olive or brownish-gray.  As a general rule, the northern and eastern populations tend to be cold-gray, and the western populations tend to be browner or more olive.

The wings often appear mostly white, especially the flight feathers.  The greater wing coverts are usually two-toned: white on the inner portion and gray on the outer portion.  This contrast within the greater coverts is the most diagnostic feature for separating Black-capped from Carolina Chickadee.  (But note that some western Black-capped populations do not show this contrast consistently.)

Black-capped Chickadee.  (London, Ontario; March 18, 2021.)  © Laure Wilson Neish

Black-capped Chickadee.  (Meinert Park, Muskegon County, Michigan; January 11, 2022.)  © Jason Carlson

Black-capped Chickadee, of a Pacific Northwestern population, showing extensively cinnamon underparts and no noticeable contrast on the greater wing coverts.  (Ambleside Park, West Vancouver, British Columbia; February 17, 2017.)  © John Reynolds

The underparts typically show an extensive buffy or cinnamon wash along the sides, and are otherwise whitish.

Black-capped Chickadee, showing an extensive cinnamon wash on the sides.  (Marguerite-D’Youville Wildlife Refuge, Châteauguay, Quebec; December 6, 2017.)  © Suzanne Labbé

Black-capped Chickadee with cold-gray upperparts and nearly all-white underparts.  (Moose Visitor Center, Jackson County, Colorado; April 21, 2019.)  © Derek Hudgins

Voice.  Best known for its signature chick-a-dee call, which is lower-pitched and slower than the Carolina Chickadee’s equivalent call:The typical song is a clear, two-note whistle (high-low):Sometimes gives a three-note variant:Also various chip notes and jumbled calls, including rapid gurgles:

Notes

Polytypic species consisting of nine recognized subspecies.

See below for a comparison of the Black-capped Chickadee with the Carolina Chickadee.

Cf. Carolina Chickadee.  The Black-capped and Carolina Chickadees occur together, or near one another, in a band that extends from southern Kansas across central Missouri and Illinois and northern Indiana and Ohio to central New Jersey—and much more widely in the Appalachians from central Pennsylvania south to western North Carolina.  In summer, the two populations remain mostly separate, with Black-capped occupying higher elevations of the Appalachians, although they are known to interbreed occasionally.  In winter, Black-capped invades Carolina’s territory, at least locally.

They can be extremely similar and both vary enough internally that some individuals are ambiguous.  With hybrids known to occur at least occasionally, some are simply not identifiable.  For the ones that are merely similar, the most consistent differences are their voices and the color patterns on their wings.

Black-capped Chickadee, showing its diagnostic white inner panel on the greater wing coverts.  (Blackpool, Les Jardins-de-Napierville, Quebec; December 19, 2018.)  © Pierre Bannon

Carolina Chickadee, showing its uniformly gray greater wing coverts.  (Cincinnati, Ohio; December 23, 2021.)  © Don Danko

Their typical songs differ.  Black-capped gives a clear two-note whistle (high-low), whereas Carolina typically gives a four-note whistle (high-low, high-low).  Each species gives its own version of the chick-a-dee call, but Black-capped’s is lower-pitched and has a slower cadence: 3 to 4 notes per second.  Carolina’s call is about 5 to 7 notes per second.  Vocalizations alone are sometimes misleading, however, as individuals in the contact zone have sometimes been observed adopting the calls of the other species.

Visually, Carolina averages grayer overall, especially on the wings.  Carolina’s wings are nearly uniform gray, whereas Black-capped’s wings have pronounced, often uneven, white markings on the flight feathers and wing coverts.  In most cases, Black-capped shows a contrast within the greater wing coverts—where the outer portion is relatively dark or medium-gray and the inner portion is white or whitish.

More Images of Black-capped Chickadee

Black-capped Chickadee.  (Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area, La Côte-de-Beaupré, Quebec; February 14, 2020.)  © Daniel Campeau

Black-capped Chickadee.  (Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta, British Columbia; November 17, 2019.)  © Graeme Colmer

Black-capped Chickadee.  (Pointe de Maizerets, Quebec; December 19, 2021.)  © Daniel Campeau

Black-capped Chickadee.  (Middletown Springs, Vermont; November 14, 2020.)  © Grace C.

References

Alderfer, J., and J.L. Dunn. 2014. National Geographic Complete Birds of North America (Second Edition). National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.

BirdLife International. 2017. Poecile atricapillus (amended version of 2016 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T22711716A118687681. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T22711716A118687681.en. (Accessed February 3, 2022.)

eBird. 2022. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, N.Y. http://www.ebird.org. (Accessed February 3, 2022.)

Harrap, S., and D. Quinn. 1995. Chickadees, Tits, Nuthatches & Treecreepers. Princeton University Press.

Sibley, D.A. 2014. The Sibley Guide to Birds (Second Edition). Alfred A. Knopf. New York.

Xeno-Canto. 2022. Black-capped Chickadee – Poecile atricapillus. https://xeno-canto.org/species/Poecile-atricapillus. (Accessed February 3, 2022.)

Xeno-Canto. 2022. Carolina Chickadee – Poecile carolinensis. https://xeno-canto.org/species/Poecile-carolinensis. (Accessed February 3, 2022.)