Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Poecile rufescens

This Chestnut-backed Chickadee is bringing grubs to a nest of four fledglings.

Every year, fledge time is grub time. We do not know what the prey item is or where they get
it, but the adults leave the nest-box and return in fifteen seconds with a beak full of larvae.

Notes on CBCH behavior:

-- preferred nest box is a kitchy item we set out for decoration, not the official Audubon box.

-- typically they lay five eggs, hatch four, fledge three; if a fourth chick emerges, it is too weak to survive.

-- This shot is of an adult trying to feed a fourth chick, on the ground.

-- In past years the family would disappear immediately after fledging; a month or so later a group of
three or four always returns and stays together throughout the summer, feeding off a seed block. In
the past couple of years the group has disappeared for only a few days before reappearing at the feeder.

-- We have witnessed the removal of a dead chick from the nest block; adult flew with carcass to a
nearby branch and dropped it on the ground.

-- Rarely we have a second brood; this could be the same set of parents or not. The
lack of gender dimorphism and the fact that chicks assume full adult plumage
after a few weeks makes it virtually impossible to tell exactly what is going on.