The Song & Calls of the Black-Capped Chickadee

Video Transcript

"Hello. Welcome to Expert Village. My name is Wayne Petersen and I'm the director of the Important Bird Areas Program for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Today, we're here at the Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary in Marshfield. And, we're going to be talking about birding by ear. One of the species of birds that actually says its name is the familiar Black Capped Chickadee. Now, Black Capped Chickadees have a variety of calls and they have a song. Let's briefly mention the song. The song of the Chickadee is not the familiar, "chickadeedeedee", that gives the bird its name, but rather its what is often called the "feebee" song or call. And, it's a thin whistle, and this is what male chickadees do during the breeding season as they move around their territories. But, they also have call notes that include a variety of little chips and other sort of hard to describe sounds. But, certainly, the "chickadeedeedee" sound is one of their more familiar. It's a vocalization that we hear year round. It's something that's given by both males and females. And, it obviously has various functions in terms of the way chickadees use that sound to communicate to other members of their flock. Because chickadees generally are species that occur in small loosely organized groups, in some cases these are family groups, in some other cases they may be comprised during the non-breeding season of individuals that are not in any way related to one another. But, the "chickadeedeedee" call is certainly a familiar sound and one that is easy to remember, but it's also important to the chickadees themselves."