The chickadee adds a cheerful atmosphere around the feeder and is a very friendly bird. He often stays close to the feeder when it is being refilled and many times he will come to it to steal a seed while you are filling it. If you have the patience, you can lure a chickadee to your sunflower seed-filled hand.
A while ago I put up a feeder in one of my deer hunting tree stands in a big, lone white pine. The feeder was made from a metal coffee can and was hung about 3 feet from my head. This feeder was empty all year except during deer season, when I kept it filled with sunflower seeds while I hunted. What amazed me is how quickly the chickadees learned that the feeder had seeds in it. One year I climbed into the tree stand the day before opening day, to get ready for the season, and I think a chickadee saw me and remembered what I had provided the year before. No sooner had I reached the platform when I heard the familiar “chickadee, dee, dee …” call. There the bird sat, near the feeder, waiting for it to be filled!
That feeder afforded me a lot of entertainment as I waited for deer to show up. The chickadees’ cheerful calls and darting in and out of the branches kept me alert. Sometimes they landed on my head, hand or shoulder.
You may wonder how these super active chickadees survive the winter, because they are constantly in motion, seemingly burning calories as quickly as they take them in. Then again, they are storing some fat. They make it through those cold winter nights by fattening up during the day and then using that energy to produce heat (by shivering) at night. They also try to sleep in any tight cranny, dense vegetation or cavities (the “tell” of which is bent tail feathers in the morning) to protect them from wind and contain their heat. Here is a good case for keeping your bird houses clean and devoid of mice during winter — so a chickadee can use one on those cold nights.
The chickadee’s pretty plumage, a mix of black, white and gray, is much denser than the plumage of other birds their size. Their heat loss is mostly from the area around the bill and eyes, so at night they fluff up into a ball to conserve heat and tuck their heads under the shoulder feathers.
One thing I have noticed is there is a definite pecking order among a flock of chickadees. Many times one bird will wait until another grabs a seed and flies off before he will venture in to grab one. Other times one is on the feeder and will fly off before grabbing a seed because a more dominant bird flies in. This is even more noticeable at my deer-stand feeder because I had cut only one feeding hole into it, facing towards me so that I could observe the birds more easily.
How trusting of humans are chickadees? I once put a few sunflower seeds on my tongue, opened my mouth and put my flattened hand up against my lower lip. It wasn’t long before a chickadee landed on my hand, stuck his head in my open mouth and grabbed a seed.
The next time you fill your bird feeder, take the time to just stand nearby for a while and get a close look at those cheerful chickadees — or better yet, get a lawn chair, take down the feeder, put some seeds in your hand and hold it out for the birds. You must remain motionless (even your eyes — squint) and have patience, but you will probably be rewarded by a chickadee landing on your hand to grab a seed.