| Mountain chickadee | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Paridae |
| Genus: | Poecile |
| Species: | P. gambeli |
| Binomial name | |
| Poecile gambeli (Ridgway, 1886) | |
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| Range of Poecile gambeli | |
| Synonyms | |
Parus gambeli | |
The mountain chickadee (Poecile gambeli) is a small songbird, a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.
The specific name honors naturalist William Gambel. The mountain chickadee 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. [2] Molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that the mountain chickadee is sister to the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus). [3] [4]
Adults of both sexes have a black cap joining a black postocular stripe behind distinctive white eyebrows. Their backs and flanks are gray and they have paler gray underparts; they have a short black bill, and a black bib. The typical adult wingspan is 7.5 in (19 cm), and the overall length is 5–6 in (13–15 cm). The Mountain Chickadee is one of 55 species of Chickadees and Tits. [5] The mountain chickadee can be distinguished from other North American chickadees because mountain chickadees are marked with a white line through the side of their black cap, whereas all other North American chickadees have a solid black-cap. Another difference between the mountain chickadee and the 55 other species of chickadees is their location, range, and habitat. [6]
Common inhabitants of the mountainous regions of the western United States and Canada, their range extends from the southern Yukon to California and Rocky Mountain States in the United States. A few mountain chickadees may migrate locally up the mountains in the summer and down into the mountain foothills in the winter; but this phenomenon is not well documented. [7]
They breed monogamously, producing 1 to 2 broods per year. In each brood, the average clutch size is 5 to 9 eggs. [8] The eggs are white, but are speckled with a terracotta color. Occasionally, the Mountain Chickadee will lay an egg without any terracotta color. [9] Incubation by the female is 14 days. The young are altricial, and stay in the nest for 21 days while being fed by both parents.
Mountain Chickadees build their nests in cavities. It is common to find nests of Mountain Chickadees in wood, but since they cannot burrow into wood that is not softened, they also build their nests into pockets that are either naturally occurring or previously made by another species. Inside of the nest, the female Mountain Chickadee builds a seal for entry from resources she gathers, such as fur. This functions as protection for her newly laid eggs when she leaves the nest. She also may use these resources to build insulation for her nest if the crevice is large. [8] The average depth for a Mountain Chickadee nest falls between 13 and 27 centimeters. [10] Mountain chickadees also may use a nest for multiple years. Mountain chickadee populations are often limited to certain locations which have good nesting sites and many cavities for inhabiting. [9]
Their primary diet is insects during the summer and breeding season; conifer seeds and other plant seeds are taken throughout the year. They cling to the undersides of branches and to tree trunks, searching for food in the bark or breaking seeds open by hammering them with their beaks. Mountain chickadees also eat a wide variety of insects. These insects include caterpillars, beetles, insect eggs, pupae, and spiders. [9] They spend most of their daylight hours scavenging for food and feeding. Their diet is best categorized as omnivorous, with only 30 percent of their food being plants and the rest insects. Due to their insect-rich diet, Mountain Chickadees help to manage and control insect populations. [10]
Their call is a throaty chick-adee-dee-dee, while their song is a 3- or 4-note descending whistle fee-bee-bay or fee-bee-fee-bee. Their song sounds like it is whistling the word "Cheeseburger". They travel in pairs or small groups, and may join multi-species feeding flocks after breeding season. When mountain chickadees are choosing a male to mate with, they tend to mate with the more dominant male. Males with a loud call and a large body tend to be chosen by females over quieter and smaller males. This makes the mountain chickadee's callings and songs a very important factor in their reproduction. [11]
The mountain chickadee's behavior is pretty similar to other chickadee species. They are fast and agile birds that hop through twigs while looking for insects and seeds. When summer is coming to an end, the mountain chickadees group together with a couple adult birds and some young birds in each grouping. The young birds usually spend the summer on their own, but as winter comes around they meet up with the older birds. [12] Recent studies have indicated that in mixed flocks, black-capped chickadees become dominant over mountain chickadees. They are also very active birds. They can be found grasping to small twigs, and often hang upside down. [13]
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.
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.
The black-capped chickadee is a small, nonmigratory, North American songbird that lives in deciduous and mixed forests. It is a passerine bird in the tit family, the Paridae. It is the state bird of Massachusetts and Maine in the United States, and the provincial bird of New Brunswick in Canada. It is well known for its ability to lower its body temperature during cold winter nights, its good spatial memory to relocate the caches where it stores food, and its boldness near humans.
The Carolina chickadee is a small passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.
The boreal chickadee is a small passerine songbird in the tit family Paridae. It is found in the boreal forests of Canada and the northern United States and remains within this range all year. 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.
The sombre tit is a member of the tit family found in southeast Europe and southwest Asia. Sombre tits occur in low density in thin woodlands at the elevation range between 1000 and 1600 metres above sea level. Similar to the other tit species, the sombre tit is a cavity-nesting species, which makes the nests in the holes in juniper, willow, poplar, and other relevant tree species. In some cases they nest in iron pipes, and in artificial nest-boxes. The clutch usually consists on 4 to 9 eggs, having two clutches per year. The species appear to be resident in the country with slight local movements. They breed on mountain slopes and in open deciduous forest; lower down on in trees and bushes in rocky terrain, as well as in fruit orchards. The breeding season lasts from early April till end of July - beginning of August. The food mainly consists on insects.
The chestnut-backed chickadee, formerly Parus rufescens, is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae.
The varied tit is a perching bird from the tit family, Paridae. It occurs in the eastern Palearctic in Japan, Korea, and locally in northeastern China and extreme southeastern Russia.
Parus is a genus of Old World birds in the tit family. It was formerly a large genus containing most of the 50 odd species in the family Paridae. The genus was split into several resurrected genera following the publication of a detailed molecular phylogenetic analysis in 2013. The genus name, Parus, is the Latin word for "tit".
The ashy tit is a species of bird in the family Paridae. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and dry savanna.
The stripe-breasted tit is a species of bird in the family Paridae. It is found in Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.
The miombo tit is a species of bird in the family Paridae. It is found in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests.
The yellow tit, Taiwan yellow tit, or Formosan yellow tit is a species of bird in the family Paridae. It is endemic to central Taiwan.
The white-backed black tit, also known as the white-backed tit, is a species of bird in the family Paridae. It is found in Eritrea and Ethiopia. Its natural habitat is boreal forests.
The yellow-cheeked tit is a species of bird in the family Paridae.
The white-browed tit is a species of bird in the tit family Paridae. It is endemic to the mountain forests of central China and Tibet.
Periparus is a genus of birds in the tit family. The birds in the genus were formerly included in Parus but were moved to Periparus when Parus was split into several resurrected genera following the publication of a detailed molecular phylogenetic analysis in 2005. The name Periparus had been introduced for a subgenus of Parus that included the coal tit by the Belgium naturalist Edmond de Sélys Longchamps in 1884. The genus name, is Ancient Greek peri plus the pre-existing genus Parus.
Carp's tit or Carp's black tit, is a species of bird in the family Paridae. Some authors consider it a subspecies of the black tit. It is found throughout the Namibian savanna woodlands and the southern Angolan mopane woodlands.
The white-shouldered black tit, also known as the pale-eyed black tit, is a passerine bird in the tit family. It breeds in a belt across Africa from Senegal in the west to Kenya and Ethiopia in the east. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the more southerly white-winged black tit Melaniparus leucomelas and, like that species, it is mainly black with a white wing patch, but differs in that it has a pale eye.
The Caspian tit is a passerine bird in the tit family. It breeds in the deciduous mountain forests of northern Iran, just extending into Azerbaijan.
| Authority control databases: National |
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