Boreal chickadee

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Boreal chickadee
Poecile hudsonicus 7.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Paridae
Genus: Poecile
Species:
P. hudsonicus
Binomial name
Poecile hudsonicus
(Forster, 1772)
Poecile hudsonicus map.svg
Range of Poecile hudsonicus
Synonyms

Parus hudsonicus

The boreal chickadee (Poecile hudsonicus) is a small passerine songbird in the tit family Paridae. It is found in the boreal forests of Alaska, Canada and the northern United States and remains within this range all year. [2] This bird is known for its high pitched trill patterns used in communication with other birds and food storage habits in preparation for winter months.

Contents

Description

Adults are 12.5–14.5 cm (4.9–5.7 in) long with a weight of 7–12.4 g (0.25–0.44 oz). They have grey-brown upperparts with a brown cap and greyish wings and tail; their face is mainly grey with white on the sides. Their underparts are white with brown on the flanks and a black throat. They have a short dark bill, short wings and a long notched tail. Their flight consists of brief gliding patterns followed by fast and bouncy wing beats as they travel through the air. [3]

Standard Measurements [4] [5]
length 130–140 mm (5–5.5 in)
weight 10 g (0.35 oz)
wingspan 210 mm (8.25 in)
wing 63.2–66.2 mm (2.49–2.61 in)
tail 59–65.9 mm (2.32–2.59 in)
culmen 7.6–9.8 mm (0.30–0.39 in)
tarsus 16–17.5 mm (0.63–0.69 in)

Vocal communications

The call is a husky tsee-day-day, as well as a high pitched trill sound, dididididididi a variant on the call which gives chickadees their name. [3] This call is composed of five distinct note-type categories consisting of A, B, C, D and D-hybrid with the beginning and end note both displaying a high frequency pitch. [6] Boreal chickadees use specialized notes within their vocal range to communicate with each other and convey information. [6] Certain notes/calls can be used as a mating tactic or to indicate a bird's rank to neighbouring fertile females in the area. [7] Females have also been known to be more attracted to a male chickadee if he portrays complex and larger song repertoires. [7] Calls can also be used in territory defence or to warn others of an invader that come to close to a nesting female. [7] Cross species comparisons can be made by comparing the vocal similarities between other species of chickadee's. [6]

Breeding/nesting behaviour

Their breeding habitat is coniferous woods in Canada, Alaska, and the northernmost portions of the contiguous United States. They generally breed from early May to the end of August and remain within their breeding range throughout the year, but sometimes move south in winter. [7] When a female chickadee finds a high quality male to mate with this provides direct and indirect benefits such as exceptional parental care and high quality genes. [7] The pair remains together year round and may mate for life. Winter movements south of their range, however, appear to have become increasingly rare. Large bodies of water and mountain ranges may restrict dispersal of the boreal chickadee into places such as the Vancouver Islands and Haida Gwaii. [8] They nest in a hole in a tree; the pair excavates the nest, using a natural cavity or sometimes an old woodpecker nest. This nest can be made of hair, fur or dead plants. [3] Five to seven eggs are laid, white with fine reddish-brown spotting. [4] Eggs are laid between May and July and hatch within 13–16 days. [7] After the eggs have hatched it takes another 16–18 days for the birds to fully develop wings large enough to attempt flight. [7]

Foraging behaviour

These birds forage on conifer branches or probe into the bark, gleaning insects and foraging for conifer seeds, which may be stored in preparation for winter months. [3] Boreal chickadees are known to store large amounts of food in different trees, each location containing several food items. [9] Food is usually stored in the mid-region of trees at a lower level than at which they foraged. [9] They generally forage in black spruce, white spruce and tamarack trees which minimizes competition with black-capped chickadees who forage in more deciduous and mixed forests. [10] Boreal chickadees often forage in small flocks including other small birds, especially in winter.

Predators

With the advantage of being a winged bird, the boreal chickadee has few predators. These consist of larger birds such as small owls, hawks and shrikes. [3] Predators of eggs and baby boreal chickadees generally consist of tree climbing animals such as squirrels, chipmunks, mice, bears and rats. [11]

Threats

The largest threat that is placed on boreal chickadees is clearcutting and logging that occurs in the boreal forest regions. [12] These practices are causing dramatic reductions in mature forests and rapidly modifying the habitat of boreal chickadees. [12]

Taxonomy

The species was formerly placed in the genus Parus with most other tits, but mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data and morphology suggest that separating Poecile more adequately expresses these birds' relationships. [13] Molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that the boreal chickadee is sister to the chestnut-backed chickadee (Poecile rufescens). [14] [15]

Related Research Articles

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The bushtits or long-tailed tits are small passerine birds from the family Aegithalidae, containing 13 species in three genera, all but one of which (Psaltriparus) are found in Eurasia. Bushtits are active birds with long tails compared to their size, moving almost constantly while they forage for insects in shrubs and trees. During non-breeding season, birds live in flocks of up to 50 individuals. Several bushtit species display cooperative breeding behavior, also called helpers at the nest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American bushtit</span> Species of bird

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tit (bird)</span> Family of small passerine birds

The tits, chickadees, and titmice constitute the Paridae, a large family of small passerine birds which occur mainly in the Northern Hemisphere and Africa. Most were formerly classified in the genus Parus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ground tit</span> Species of bird

The ground tit, Tibetan ground-tit or Hume's ground-tit is a bird of the Tibetan plateau north of the Himalayas. The peculiar appearance confused ornithologists in the past who called it as Hume's groundpecker and still later as Hume's ground jay or Tibetan ground jay assuming that it belonged to the family Corvidae that includes the crows and jays. Although morphologically confusing, the species has since been identified using molecular sequence comparisons as being a member of the tit family (Paridae) and is the only species in the genus Pseudopodoces. It is found in the Tibetan Plateau of China, India, Nepal & Bhutan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marsh tit</span> Species of bird

The marsh tit is a Eurasian passerine bird in the tit family Paridae and genus Poecile, closely related to the willow tit, Père David's and Songar tits. It is a small bird, around 12 cm (4.7 in) long and weighing 12 g (0.42 oz), with a black crown and nape, pale cheeks, brown back and greyish-brown wings and tail. Between 8 and 11 subspecies are recognised. Its close resemblance to the willow tit can cause identification problems, especially in the United Kingdom where the local subspecies of the two are very similar: they were not recognised as separate species until 1897.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coal tit</span> Species of bird

The coal tit, is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder in forests throughout the temperate to subtropical Palearctic, including North Africa. The black-crested tit is now usually included in this species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willow tit</span> Species of passerine bird in the tit family Paridae

The willow tit is a passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and across the Palearctic. The plumage is grey-brown and off-white with a black cap and bib. It is more of a conifer specialist than the closely related marsh tit, which explains it breeding much further north. It is resident, and most birds do not migrate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great tit</span> Passerine bird in the tit family Paridae

The great tit is a small passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland; most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters. Until 2005 this species was lumped with numerous other subspecies. DNA studies have shown these other subspecies to be distinct from the great tit and these have now been separated as two distinct species, the cinereous tit of southern Asia, and the Japanese tit of East Asia. The great tit remains the most widespread species in the genus Parus.

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The black-capped chickadee is a small, nonmigratory, North American passerine bird that lives in deciduous and mixed forests. It is a member of the Paridae family, also known as tits. It has a distinct black cap on its head, a black bib underneath, and white cheeks. It has a white belly, buff sides, and grey wings, back, and tail. The bird is well known for its vocalizations, including its fee-bee call and its chick-a-dee-dee-dee call, from which it derives its name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carolina chickadee</span> Species of bird

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grey-headed chickadee</span> Species of bird

The grey-headed chickadee or Siberian tit, formerly Parus cinctus, is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread resident breeder throughout subarctic Scandinavia and the northern Palearctic, and also into North America in Alaska and the far northwest of Canada. It is a conifer specialist. It is resident, and most birds do not migrate. Curiously, the bird has no grey on its head, which is black, white, and brown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mountain chickadee</span> Species of bird

The mountain chickadee is a small songbird, a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexican chickadee</span> Species of bird

The Mexican chickadee is a small songbird, a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is still often placed in the genus Parus with most other tits, but mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data and morphology suggest that separating Poecile more adequately expresses these birds' relationships. The American Ornithologists' Union had been treating Poecile as distinct genus for some time already.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sombre tit</span> Species of bird

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chestnut-backed chickadee</span> Species of bird

The chestnut-backed chickadee is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae, native to western North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sultan tit</span> Species of bird

The sultan tit is an Asian forest bird with a yellow crest, dark bill, black upperparts plumage and yellow underparts. The sexes are similar. The female has greenish-black upperparts and a yellowish throat. The young bird is duller than the adult and has a shorter crest. It is the only member of the monotypic genus Melanochlora, which is fairly distinct from the Parus tits with the nearest relative being the monotypic Sylviparus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-browed tit</span> Species of bird

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<i>Poecile</i> Genus of birds in the tit family Paridae

Poecile is a genus of birds in the tit family Paridae. It contains 15 species, which are scattered across North America, Europe and Asia; the North American species are the chickadees. In the past, most authorities retained Poecile as a subgenus within the genus Parus, but treatment as a distinct genus, initiated by the American Ornithologists Union, is now widely accepted. This is supported by mtDNA cytochrome b sequence analysis.

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References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2016). "Poecile hudsonicus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T22711759A94307879. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22711759A94307879.en .
  2. ↑ Weisman, Ronald; Balkwill, Laura-Lee; Hoeschele, Marisa; Moscicki, Michele; Bloomfield, Laurie; Strudy, Christipher (2010). "Absolute pitch in boreal chickadees and humans: exceptions that test a phylogenetic rule". Learning and Motivation . 41 (3): 156–173. doi:10.1016/j.lmot.2010.04.002.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Bird, D.M (2010). Birds of Canada. Toronto: Dorling Kindersley. pp. 306–328.
  4. 1 2 Godfrey, W. Earl (1966). The Birds of Canada. Ottawa: National Museum of Canada. pp. 279–280.
  5. ↑ Sibley, David Allen (2000). The Sibley Guide to Birds . New York: Knopf. p.  376. ISBN   0-679-45122-6.
  6. 1 2 3 Moscicki, M.K.; Hoeschele, M.; Bloomfield, L.L.; Modanu, M; Charrier, I.; Sturdy, C.B. (2011). "Note types and coding in Parid vocalizations: The chick-a-dee call of the boreal chickadee (People hudsonicus)". The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America . 129 (5): 3327–3340. Bibcode:2011ASAJ..129.3327M. doi:10.1121/1.3560925. PMID   21568433.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Trout-Haney, Jessica (2010). Breeding biology and genetic mating system of the Boreal Chickadee (Poecile hudsonicus). Ann Arbor. pp. 1–47.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ↑ Lait, L. A.; Burg, T. M. (2013). "When east meets west: Population structure of a high-latitude resident species, the boreal chickadee (Poecile hudsonicus)". Heredity. 111 (4): 321–329. doi:10.1038/hdy.2013.54. PMC   3807262 . PMID   23759728.
  9. 1 2 Haftorn, Svein (1974). "Storage of Surplus Food by the Boreal Chickadee Paris hudsonicus in Alaska, with some records on the mountain chickadee parts gamble in Colorado". Ornis Scandinavica . 5: 145–161. doi:10.2307/3676058. JSTOR   3676058.
  10. ↑ Gayk, Z.G.; Lindsay, A.R. (2012). "Winter microhabitat foraging preferences of sympatric Boreal and Black-capped chickadees in Michigan's upper Peninsula". The Wilson Journal of Ornithology . 124 (4): 820–824. doi:10.1676/1559-4491-124.4.820. S2CID   5838855.
  11. ↑ Mahon, C.L.; Martin, K (2006). "Nest Survival of Chickadees in Managed Forests: Habitat, Predator, and Year Effects". The Journal of Wildlife Management . 70 (5): 1256–1265. doi:10.2193/0022-541X(2006)70[1257:NSOCIM]2.0.CO;2. S2CID   85777942.
  12. 1 2 Hadley, Adam; Desrochers, André (2008). "Winter habitat use by boreal chickadee flocks in a managed forest". The Wilson Journal of Ornithology . 120: 139–145. doi:10.1676/06-134.1. S2CID   86328417.
  13. ↑ Gill, F.B.; Slikas, B.; Sheldon, F.H. (2005). "Phylogeny of titmice (Paridae): II. Species relationships based on sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene". Auk . 122: 121–143. doi:10.1642/0004-8038(2005)122[0121:POTPIS]2.0.CO;2. S2CID   86067032.
  14. ↑ Johansson, Ulf S.; Ekman, Jan; Bowie, Rauri C. K.; Halvarsson, Peter; Ohlson, Jan I.; Price, Trevor D.; Ericson, Per G. P. (2013). "A complete multilocus species phylogeny of the tits and chickadees (Aves: Paridae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 69 (3): 852–860. Bibcode:2013MolPE..69..852J. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2013.06.019. PMID   23831453.
  15. ↑ Tritsch, Christian; Martens, Jochen; Sun, Yue-Hua; Heim, Wieland; Strutzenberger, Patrick; Päckert, Martin (2017). "Improved sampling at the subspecies level solves a taxonomic dilemma – A case study of two enigmatic Chinese tit species (Aves, Passeriformes, Paridae, Poecile)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 107: 538–550. Bibcode:2017MolPE.107..538T. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2016.12.014. PMID   27965081.
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