Chickadees

There are some days when it's hard to function or think clearly, or get motivated to do much. Today (well the past many days) is one of those.

However, despite that, there are still a few things that capture my attention long enough to distract me. Birds happen to be one of those. There are a couple of feeders up just outside the visitor center. We generally get many black-capped chickadees. They are a very flighty, high-strung little bird. But they also have a cousin - the mountain chickadee. Equally high strung, but not quite as abundant. Or at least they stay hidden more often. So it is rare for me to see one, and when I do, I get pretty excited.



Last year about this time, I think we had one show up one time. This year, so far, we've had at least one, but it continually comes around to the feeder, so I've had multiple opportunities to watch the little guy.

Here are two images. One of a black-capped chickadee, one of a mountain chickadee. I apologize upfront for the poor quality of the images.

This is the ubiquitous black-capped chickadee. You can see the black cap on its head for which it is named. Hello chickadee-dee-dee.

This is the feisty little mountain chickadee. The obvious difference is in the cap. It doesn't come all the way down to its eye.  Instead it has a black eye-stripe giving it a masked look. I think they look rather gruff and tough with that mask on, while the black-capped fellas just look sweet.