Black-capped Chickadee
December 8, 2012
Black-capped Chickadees are common and easily recognizable
year-round residents of Montana. They form flocks in winter,
to forage and huddle in cold weather. Their call is the
familiar chickadee-dee-dee. According to the web site All-
Birds.com, researchers at the University of Montana have
discovered that chickadees have one of the most sophisticated
systems of communication of any land animal, able to
distinguish and communicate stationary predators vs. flying
birds of prey. The calls are used to warn and to recruit
other birds to harass, or mob, the predator and chase it away.
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