Species · GBIF taxon 2487825
Mountain Chickadee
Poecile gambeliAlso known as Mountain Tit
Mountain chickadees are hardy, active little songbirds easily recognized by the white stripe cutting through their black eyeline. They spend their days acrobatically clinging to pinecone scales and bark crevices in western coniferous forests, often hanging upside down to extract seeds or insects. During winter, these social birds form mixed-species foraging flocks, relying on an impressive spatial memory to relocate thousands of seeds they cached earlier in the year.
AcrobaticSocialVocal
Licensed reference(c) Ron Knight, some rights reserved (CC BY) · cc-by
- diet
- Insects, spiders, conifer seeds, and berries
- family
- Paridae
- threats
- Habitat loss from logging, climate change altering forest composition, and severe wildfires
- life Span
- 2 to 5 years
LC
Safe to observe at a normal distance.
- Listen for calls: Listen for their dry, hoarse 'chick-a-dee-dee-dee' call, which is distinctly buzzy compared to other chickadees.
- Watch the canopy: Scan the outer branches of pines and firs where they actively forage and hang upside down.
- Provide suet: Attract them to mountain backyards during winter by offering high-energy suet and black oil sunflower seeds.