Black and White

March 21st 10:24
Temp: 43 F and cloudy/chilly
Habitat: forested wetland in Milton, VT

The trip was more impromptu as I was brought out by the sound of Black-capped chickadees calling to each other. The Black-capped chickadees must have formed a small flock as many calls were happening at once. As I walked through the forest, I continuously made a “pish” sound in hopes to attract some to my location. Luckily, one landed on a nearby tree and watched me for a couple of seconds. Determined to not be a threat, as no “Chicka-dee-dee-dee” warning was made and the crest of the chickadee remained flat, the chickadee flew away and the calls of “cheeseburger” started again. Because a singular bird came and returned to the flock quickly, I believe the chickadee came because it was curious after hearing the spishing noise and the chorus of noises after was the chickadee reporting back.

After the chickadee left, I was alone for a long period of time. I heard a Common grackle, an American crow and a Red-winged blackbird. After many minutes of trying to find the redwing blackbird, I couldn’t find the feather nor wing of the mysterious bird. However, I did recognize the call as a song which could be used to attract mates. But I only heard one call so I doubt the bird was going to find a match.

During the search, a pair of Canada geese flew overheard while honking. The honking was likely to encourage the geese to keep flying and to stay together. Since there are no distinguishing patterns between males and females in Canada geese, I could only guess they were a mated pair looking for a place to nest or settle as the time of year was correct. This would be inline with their circannual cycle as breeding is an activity birds do at 12 month intervals, rather than within a 23 hour cycle, and when days grow longer. As daylight saving time occurred recently, which signaled the days growing longer, the growing days could have signaled the geese to fly north to look for a place to nest with their pair.

The Black-capped Chickadee and the Canada goose appear to have similar head patterns, but I believe the purpose behind these patterns are very different. The Black-capped Chickadee’s pattern on the head is to accentuate the bill as the white and back pattern create lines to show off the bill. The bill being the noticeable part of their body will help them defend their territory without having to physically fight as they have a chance to intimidate their opponents. The goose has the same colors on the head but the white is not connected to the bill and the bill gets lost in the black color. Instead, the white is in the “cheeks” of the bird and the pattern appears to stand out more, making it appear to be a bold pattern. As Canada geese choose a mate for life and do not have to defend their mate for rights of mating every season to avoid losing the right, they have to focus less on the bill and more on standing out so they can get chosen for mating.

List of birds:
Black-capped chickadee
Seen one but heard many more
2 Canada geese
Common grackle
American crow
Red-winged blackbird

Posted on March 25, 2020 05:01 PM by