Animal
Black-capped chickadee
The black-capped chickadee is a tiny, round bird with a black cap and white cheeks. It says its own name: chick-a-dee-dee-dee!
The black-capped chickadee is a small, curious songbird of North American woods and backyards. It hides thousands of seeds to eat later and remembers where they are, and its "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" call tells other birds how dangerous a nearby predator is.
Poecile atricapillus is a common small songbird (family Paridae) of Canada and the United States. It caches food and remembers thousands of hiding places, and studies of its mobbing calls show they encode the size and threat of predators. It is Least Concern (IUCN, 2025).
Photo: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the black-capped chickadee
The chickadee is a tiny bird with a big round head.
It has a black cap, a black bib under its beak and white cheeks. It is very curious and not shy at all.
The black-capped chickadee is a small songbird, only 12 to 15 centimeters long and about 9 to 14 grams. It has an oversized round head with a black cap and bib, white cheeks, a gray back, wings and tail, and a whitish belly with buff-colored sides.
Chickadees are curious about everything, including people. They often come to bird feeders, which makes them one of the first birds many people learn. They belong to the same family as tits and titmice.
Poecile atricapillus belongs to the family Paridae (tits, chickadees and titmice). Adults are 12 to 15 centimeters long, weigh 9 to 14 grams and have a wingspan of 16 to 21 centimeters (Cornell Lab of Ornithology).
The plumage is distinctive: black cap and bib, white cheeks, gray upperparts and whitish underparts with buffy flanks. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology notes that its habit of investigating people and its quickness to find feeders make it one of the first birds most people learn.
Quick facts
- Group
- Bird
- Length
- 0.12 to 0.15 m
- Wingspan
- 0.16 to 0.21 m
- Weight
- 0.01 to 0.01 kg
- Lifespan in the wild
- up to 11.7 years
Where it lives
Chickadees live in Canada and the United States.
They live in woods, parks and backyards with trees. You can see them even in winter when it snows.
Black-capped chickadees live across Canada and much of the United States. You can find them in almost any place with trees: forests of leafy and mixed trees, open woods, parks, willow thickets, cottonwood groves and even backyards.
You can see chickadees through the winter, even in very cold places. On freezing nights, each chickadee sleeps alone in its own hole in a tree.
The IUCN (2025) lists the United States and Canada (plus Saint Pierre and Miquelon) as range countries, though it codes Canada only as a passage (migration stopover) country. Canadian sources are clear that the bird lives there all year: Hinterland Who's Who, from the Canadian Wildlife Federation and Environment and Climate Change Canada, describes it as an ordinarily year-round resident found throughout Canada, from Newfoundland to British Columbia and north into the southern Yukon and Northwest Territories, and Cornell notes that adult chickadees do not migrate. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes habitats including deciduous and mixed forest, open woods, parks, willow thickets, cottonwood groves and disturbed areas, and notes the species is easy to see at feeders and in virtually any area with trees within its range.
Chickadees roost through the winter: even at temperatures far below zero, they virtually always sleep in individual cavities, which they can excavate themselves in rotten wood. Forest edges created by clearing can improve habitat for them.
Continent
Its habitat
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Forests, open woods, parks and backyards across much of Canada and the United States. Chickadees live where there are trees; they are not found everywhere within each country shown. Canada is shaded as native because Hinterland Who's Who (Canadian Wildlife Federation and Environment and Climate Change Canada) describes the chickadee as a year-round resident throughout Canada, north into the southe
Places: Canada and United States.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in United States, Canada, France, Brazil, Germany, Russia, Poland, Sweden and 20 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
What it eats
Chickadees eat bugs, spiders, seeds and berries.
They hide seeds in lots of different places. Later they remember where they put them!
In spring, summer and fall, chickadees eat mostly insects and spiders. In winter, about half of their food is seeds and berries and half is animal food like insects, spiders and suet. At feeders they love sunflower seeds, peanuts and suet. They hold a seed, peck a hole in the shell, and chip out tiny bits.
Chickadees hide seeds and other food to eat later, putting each item in a different spot. Amazingly, a chickadee can remember thousands of hiding places.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology reports a strongly seasonal diet: insects, spiders and other animal food make up 80 to 90 percent in spring, summer and fall, while winter food is about half seeds, berries and other plant matter and half animal food, including insects, spiders, suet and sometimes fat from frozen carcasses.
Chickadees are scatter-hoarders: each cached item goes in a different spot, and a chickadee can remember thousands of hiding places. The Cornell Lab also reports that every autumn chickadees let brain neurons holding old information die and replace them with new ones, helping them adapt to changes in their flocks and surroundings.
Did you know?
Even on freezing nights, each chickadee sleeps in its own little hole.
Even when it is far below zero, chickadees almost always sleep alone in their own tree holes.
Chickadees roost singly in cavities even at temperatures far below zero, excavating their own holes in rotten wood.
Small but tough
The chickadee is very small and very light.
It can hang upside down to find food. Its little feet hold on tight!
A chickadee weighs only 9 to 14 grams, but it is tough enough to live through very cold winters. Its short bill can peck open seeds and dig out soft, rotten wood to make a nest hole.
Chickadees are active and acrobatic. They can even hang upside down to feed, like the chickadee in our photo, which is eating from a seed head.
At 9 to 14 grams, the chickadee overwinters in cold climates, relying on stored food, sleeping in individual cavities and, according to Cornell, renewing neurons each autumn. Its short bill is used to peck open seeds and to excavate cavities in rotten wood.
The Cornell Lab describes chickadees as active, acrobatic foragers, often in mixed flocks with nuthatches, woodpeckers, kinglets, creepers, warblers and vireos; individuals seldom perch within a few feet of one another while feeding.
Growing up
Chickadees make their nest inside a hole in a tree.
The mother lays small white eggs with tiny red-brown dots. The babies grow up in about two weeks.
A chickadee pair digs out a nest hole in a dead, soft tree or branch, often an alder or birch, or uses an old woodpecker hole or a nest box. The female chooses the spot, and she builds a soft cup inside from moss, lined with fur.
She lays white eggs with tiny reddish-brown dots, usually raising one brood a year. The eggs hatch after 12 to 13 days. The chicks hatch with their eyes closed and only six little patches of gray fluff, and they leave the nest just 12 to 16 days later.
Both sexes excavate a cavity, usually at a site chosen by the female, in dead snags or rotten branches, often alder or birch, typically 1.5 to 7 meters up; nest boxes and old downy woodpecker holes are also used. The chamber averages 21 centimeters deep, and the female builds a moss-based cup lined with soft material such as rabbit fur (Cornell Lab of Ornithology).
Clutches range from 1 to 13 eggs, white with fine reddish-brown spots, with one brood per year. Incubation lasts 12 to 13 days and the nestling period 12 to 16 days. Hatchlings are naked except for six small patches of gray down. The oldest known wild chickadee was at least 11 years 8 months old.
Chick-a-dee-dee-dee!
Chickadees talk to each other with calls.
When they see a danger, they call "chick-a-dee-dee-dee!" The more dees, the bigger the danger.
The chickadee's famous call, "chick-a-dee-dee-dee," is also an alarm. In a 2005 study, scientists showed chickadees 15 kinds of live predators. When a small, quick predator like a pygmy-owl perched nearby, the chickadees added more "dee" notes, once as many as 23! Small, agile hunters are more dangerous to chickadees than big, slow owls.
Other birds listen too. Many birds that travel with chickadees in winter flocks respond to their alarm calls. When a hawk flies overhead, chickadees give a different, soft "seet" call.
Templeton, Greene and Davis (Science, 2005) presented 15 live predators to chickadees in a semi-natural aviary and analyzed more than 5,000 mobbing calls. Acoustic features varied with predator size: small, maneuverable raptors such as the pygmy-owl, a greater threat than large owls, drew more "dee" notes, up to 23 added dees. Playbacks showed chickadees use this information, mobbing more intensely for more threatening predators; flying raptors instead trigger a soft, high "seet" call (University of Washington).
The Cornell Lab notes that flock calls carry information on identity, flock membership, predators and contact, and that winter flocks have a dominance hierarchy, with some "floaters" holding different ranks in different flocks.
Did you know?
A chickadee can remember thousands of places where it hid food.
Chickadees hide each seed in a different spot and can remember thousands of hiding places.
As scatter-hoarders, chickadees cache items singly and can recall thousands of cache sites (Cornell Lab of Ornithology).
A backyard friend
There are lots and lots of chickadees.
They are not in danger. You can help them by putting up a nest box or a bird feeder.
Black-capped chickadees are common and not in danger. Scientists estimate there are about 43 million of them, and their numbers grew slightly between 1966 and 2019.
They do well near people who keep bird feeders. But like other birds that nest in tree holes, they need dead trees to nest in, so cutting down too many dead trees can harm them. A nest box filled with wood shavings can give a chickadee family a home.
BirdLife International's 2025 assessment for the IUCN Red List (assessed 12 June 2025) lists the species as Least Concern. The North American Breeding Bird Survey shows a slight overall increase from 1966 to 2019, with slight western declines offset by eastern increases; Partners in Flight estimates 43 million breeding birds and a Continental Concern Score of 7 out of 20.
The Cornell Lab notes that forest edges and bird feeders benefit chickadees, while removing too many dead trees harms cavity nesters. Chickadees readily use nest boxes, especially ones filled with sawdust or wood shavings they can excavate.
IUCN Red List
How is the black-capped chickadee doing in the wild?
- Least Concern (this animal)
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Least Concern
Not at risk of disappearing from the wild right now.
See the IUCN Red List assessment · The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021.3
Amazing facts
-
A chickadee can remember thousands of places where it hid food.
Chickadees hide each seed in a different spot and can remember thousands of hiding places.
As scatter-hoarders, chickadees cache items singly and can recall thousands of cache sites (Cornell Lab of Ornithology).
-
More dees in a chickadee's call mean more danger.
The more "dee" notes in a chickadee's call, the more dangerous the predator. A pygmy-owl once got 23 extra dees!
In Templeton and colleagues' aviary experiments, a perched pygmy-owl drew as many as 23 added dee notes.
-
Even on freezing nights, each chickadee sleeps in its own little hole.
Even when it is far below zero, chickadees almost always sleep alone in their own tree holes.
Chickadees roost singly in cavities even at temperatures far below zero, excavating their own holes in rotten wood.
-
Other birds listen to chickadee alarms.
Many birds that travel with chickadees respond to chickadee alarm calls, even if their own species has no similar call.
Most species associating with chickadee flocks respond to chickadee alarm calls, even when they lack an equivalent alarm call.
Words to know
- cache
- to hide food to eat later, or the hidden food itself
- predator
- an animal that hunts other animals for food
- alarm call
- a sound an animal makes to warn others of danger
- mobbing
- when small birds gather and call loudly to chase off a predator
- cavity
- a hole, such as one in a tree, used for nesting or sleeping
- bib
- a patch of color under a bird's bill
Discovery challenge
-
What color is a chickadee's cap?
What color is the black-capped chickadee's cap?
Which field mark gives Poecile atricapillus its common name?
- Black
- Red
- Bright yellow
Show the answer
Black
Its cap is black, and its cheeks are white.
It has a black cap and bib with white cheeks.
The black cap (crown), with a black bib and white cheeks.
-
What does a chickadee do with extra seeds?
What do chickadees do with extra food?
How do black-capped chickadees store food?
- Throw them away
- Hide them and remember where
- Give them to squirrels
Show the answer
Hide them and remember where
They hide seeds and remember where they put them!
They hide each item in a different spot and can remember thousands of hiding places.
Scatter-hoarding: single items cached in separate sites, recalled later.
-
What do more dees in a chickadee's call mean?
What do extra "dee" notes in a chickadee alarm call tell other birds?
What did Templeton and colleagues find about dee notes in mobbing calls?
- Food is nearby
- It is time to sleep
- A more dangerous predator is near
Show the answer
A more dangerous predator is near
More dees mean a bigger danger!
The more dee notes, the more dangerous the predator, such as a small, quick pygmy-owl.
Call features, including the number of dee notes, vary with predator size and threat; smaller, agile raptors elicit more.
-
Where do chickadees sleep on cold nights?
Where does a chickadee usually sleep on a freezing night?
How do chickadees roost in winter?
- Alone in a tree hole
- On the ground in the snow
- In a big pile with other birds on a branch
Show the answer
Alone in a tree hole
Each one sleeps in its own little tree hole.
Even far below zero, chickadees almost always sleep alone in their own cavities.
Singly, in individual cavities, often excavated in rotten wood.
Places where you might see it
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Watch
Country
Canada
Canada is the second-largest country in the world, stretching across the north of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific and up into the Arctic. It has the Rocky Mountains, thousands of islands and about 42 million people, who speak English, French and many other languages.
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Watch
Country
United States
The United States is a large country in North America made of 50 states, from icy Alaska to the warm islands of Hawaii. It has the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River and Yellowstone, and about 342 million people live there.
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Identify a black-capped chickadee by its cap, bib and cheeks.
- Explain food caching and how chickadees remember hiding places.
- Describe how chickadee alarm calls carry information, based on a real experiment.
- Know simple ways people help chickadees, such as nest boxes and leaving dead trees.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 12 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might it help other birds to listen to chickadee alarm calls?
- Why would a small owl be more dangerous to a chickadee than a big one?
- How could you test your own memory for hiding places?
Try at home or in class
- Hide ten small objects around a room, wait an hour, and see how many you can find from memory. Chickadees remember thousands!
- Listen for chickadees in a park and count the dee notes in each call.
Key vocabulary: cache, predator, alarm call, mobbing, cavity, bib
Where these facts come from
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Poecile atricapillus (Black-capped Chickadee), Red List assessment (BirdLife International 2025) , IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- Black-capped Chickadee: Overview , Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds
- Black-capped Chickadee: Identification , Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds
- Black-capped Chickadee: Life History , Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds
- Chickadees' alarm calls carry information about size, threat of predator (2005) , University of Washington News
- Black-capped Chickadee , Hinterland Who's Who (Canadian Wildlife Federation and Environment and Climate Change Canada)
- Black-capped Chickadee: Range Map , Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 27, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.