Return of the DeeDee's

I am so happy these little ones are back. I missed them so much. They had a heck of a time trying to get food from the feeders because the House Finch kept chasing them off. I wondered if the 2 that I saw could be teenagers.

2 Pics

Another pic. They seem like such happy little birds.

Very nice photos, Pelletory - so clear!! Darling little birds - I just love 'em!

Dee Dee how true! I have had some all summer. But I get much more during the winter months. Nice pics!

Oh, I adore the little chickadees! They do, indeed, seem like happy-go-lucky little birds.

good photos. I can never seem to get their eyes to show in all the black on their heads.

Nice pic! I know what you mean, they are really quick and have that grab and run style of feeding. The eyes are really hard to capture w/ the black feathers around it.
This is my best shot I guess of the eye. I was sitting in a chair 5 feet from the feeder.
Stll the eye is hard to capture. I love their bravado! I consider them quite a challenge that I have to keep persuing.


Apologize for reposting this pic.

They are so chipper and active. They land on a branch, spot the seed they want, look all around to make sure they are safe and then make a mad dash for the seed. Most of the time you have seconds to compose your photo before they are gone. A challenge and a lot of fun.

Thats the truth! I keep talking to them"DeeDeeDee", I'm sure they could care less and my DH thinks I'm loopy.They certainly are one of my top favorites in the yard. Everytime I hear them call it makes me smile.

Oh, my *very* favorite bird!!! You have officially made my day, Pelletory! :-)

Carla

Well I'm getting cautiously optimistic here. It seems the European Starlings have left for the most part and now along with seeing the Chickadees I also spotted a Carolina Wren on a suet feeder today.
Who knows, maybe soon I'll be seeing a Tufted Titmouse or Yellow Rumped Warbler.

Ps. Glad we could make your day Carla!

Oh, I hope you get to see tufted titmice! I love them but, sadly, we don't get them here. :(

Is it true (I seriously HAVE heard this or read it in a birding magazine) that the more times they say "dee dee dee" the more nervous they are or the more danger they sense they're in? Or am I seriously smoking crack?

Well... I can't answer about your smoking crack, lol.

I'd find that a little hard to believe since I hear them doing it all the time. The average number of dee's I hear them say is 3. I guess it's a possibility, I just haven't witnessed it that much here.

Maybe my Dee's are MellowDee's. heehee

OK: Officially NOT smoking crack: Lordy bee, I love Google!


Biologists Crack Code of Chickadee Song
by Elise Kleeman

Who would have guessed that when a chickadee opens its tiny beak, it has a lot to say? Biologists studying the alarm calls of black-capped chickadees found the bird’s songs signal not only the presence but also the size of nearby predators. “This level of complexity is certainly new, in terms of alarm responses especially,” says Chris Templeton of the University of Washington in Seattle. His study shows chickadees have one of the most sophisticated means of communication discovered in animals.

Templeton had been working with a flock of the pint-size songbirds on another project when he realized they responded differently to each species of bird of prey tethered in their enclosure. “Most of the variations are really subtle and are too fine to pick up with our ears,” Templeton says. “But one of them we can hear is the dee.” The more dangerous the predator, he says, the more dee notes in their eponymous chick-a-dee-dee-dee call.

It isn’t large birds of prey that the chickadees fear most, though. “Smaller predators are more maneuverable, and they’re the only ones that can really catch a chickadee,” Templeton says. His team showed that small raptors like pygmy owls prompted an average of 3 and a half extra dees—and as many as 23. The great gray owl, which has a wingspan four times larger than the pygmy owl’s, elicited only an extra half dee on average. The same trend also held when Templeton introduced a cat and a ferret, which both eat birds, but not when he added a small yet harmless bobwhite quail, which suggests that chickadees base their calls on more than size.

The biologists also found that the more dees in an alarm cry, the larger the mob of other chickadees that formed to attack the intruder and the closer they approached in their attacks. “The more closely we look at animal calls, the more information we find,” Templeton says. “It’s surprising and really exciting to know that there is such sophisticated information being passed along in the calls you can hear almost every day.”



This message was edited Aug 1, 2007 3:13 PM

Thats interesting. I'll have to keep an eye or more likely an ear out next time the 2 stray cats come around.

I love the Dees too and I have also heard that they are about the easiest species to train to hand feed! (someday when I have more time and patience lol!) What an INTERESTING article Judy! I'm loving all the photos too. They are adorable critters. I am so glad they are back at your feeders Pell. And I'm glad that black bird mob has gone. In a way its such a poignant time of year. I hate to see the summer ending but there is a real seasonal pull that I physically feel toward fall. I'm already thinking of new a different ways to lure the bird in for winter watching. :-)

Here is a picture I took from inside the house (not very sharp) of a Dee looking for bugs in the crevices of the river birch bark. Yay Dee!! Eat those earwigs - yay!

and here's an even blurrier picture of a Dee doing one of its favorite things - drinking and bathing from the ant trap on my hummer feeder! I have three other nice shallow bird baths but the Dees really do seem to prefer these little ant traps. I have seen goldfinches use them too. Right after I took this picture a hummer angrily buzzed over and chased the Dee away.

Nice shot! I love the bark on that tree!

Hmm, maybe I'll have to get some of those ant traps.

lilyfantn, my chickadees use the ant thing for a drink/bath, too! Crazy things... birdbaths and fountains in my backyard... they want to use the ant trap.

I am being over run here with House Finches any suggestions?? I hadn't really noticed untill I read this thread that my chickadees aren't visiting like before!!!

I've always been over run w/ House Finch but that didn't stop the Dees from coming back. It was the Starlings that drove them away.
I don't know of anyway to make them go away except for taking down the feeders. They like so many types of seed that their isn't really any that you could leave out except maybe a Peanut Silo and Suet. Sorry.

Yep starlings are the reason for our steep decline in chickadees too.We used to have so many chickadees until the starlings moved into the area a few years back and took all their nesting cavities from them.I sure do miss them at my feeders : (

Fascinating article - and written by someone right here in my home state so it has to be true!!

I love chickadees! Cedarnest, have you thought about putting up a nestbox just for chickadees? I have one with a 1.25" entry hole, and that should keep out the starlings and house sparrows, two of their biggest nestbox competitors. (This entry size won't keep out house wrens, though.) If you put up a box, I recommend attaching a metal hole guard, because larger birds might try to peck the hole bigger.

I also just read an article about how red-breasted nuthatches are the only other bird that understands the "Dee" variations in the Chickadee calls and joins in to mob predators. Bilingual birds--who knew?

I am longing for a day (soon if I'm lucky) when I can sit outside and just listen to the birds - see if I can recognize any of this talking amongst them!

You guys have made my day. First with some really cute pix of Chickadees and then, Judy, you gave me my best laugh of the day when you asked, "Or am I seriously smoking crack?" ROTFLMBO!!! I say that sometimes and, before I read it, I was taking a sip of water. I had to try SO hard not to spit it on my monitor, LOL! That article is really interesting. I've heard them seem to go on and on with the "dees" before, too. They do sound nervous.

Pelletory, I completely agree with you - the chickadees do seem like such happy little birds. I love how they look like a little fat ball in the winter and bounce around. They're so cute and always make me smile. I remember when I went to college, there were two living in a deciduous bush, right next to a bench outside the door. When I'd sit on the bench and see them in the leafless bush, I'd feel bad for them. But they were sitting there, with the cold wind and snow blowing on them, chirping and happy. They got so friendly that they'd hop out and kinda talk to us, when people would be on the bench, lol. But not scolding us for being so close, just chatting with us, lol. Made the winter much more bearable. Ü

Ya know, I know we have the chickadees in winter, but I don't know if we have them in the summer. I thought we did and it says we should, in my book. But I haven't seen one, yet, this year. I thought I did, but then realized they were the English/House Sparrows. I know those guys have reddish-brown on them, but that's harder to see when you're far away. Hmmmmm. Where are our chickadees?! I miss them! ;(

~Kristy

;Really enjoyed the pictures of the chickadees. A pair of them stared showing up here in my garden about 9 or 10 years ago after some of my trees got large enough so that they were visible. I am sure it was the same pair as they were here year around an raised families. A Sharp Shinned hawk started hanging around a year ago and finally got both or them. I was so sad. And no others have come this year to visit that I saw or heard. They were my favorite birds, and i have lots of birds.

Two dozen Goldfinches stayed all winter and were much enjoyed. I think all the pairs must have had successful hatches as there are probably more than 35 or so Goldfinches now. Also at least one pair of Pine Siskins are staying constantly at the Nyjer feeder.

Donna

Oh that is ashame especially since it was your only pair.

Wow, that's a lot of Goldfinches; lucky you!

Last week I had several young chickadees trying to feed from one of my hummer feeders under the eave of the house (the bottle kind that has four "flower" ports with perches). Should I maybe put the Oriole feeder back up? Or set up a fruit feeder (oranges, apples, etc.)? I took the feeder down mainly because the squirrels were chewing it up around the holes and knocking it down.

I only spot one Oriole one or two days each year, probably migrating.

We just started getting a large population of house finches in the past two years (I've had feeders up for 20 years around my deck) Until the finches became so numerous the largest population of birds feeding year round at my feeders was Titmouse, Chickadees, and Cardinals. Goo-gobs of them from daylight to dark. We still have quite a few but not like before.

Another thing I've noticed past two years, since house finches more numerous, is, I haven't spotted Purple Finches past two winters (they are only at my feeders in winter). We used to have a lot of them when the Juncos, Goldfinches, PineSiskens arrived for the winter.

gg=alice

After only 24 hours of taking down all feeders except for 2 peanut silos and 2 nyger feeders I'm already seeing WAY LESS House Finch. I'll keep it that way a few more days then gradually put the other feeders back.

Alice why not at least put out the oriole feeder to see if one comes in.

nanny, Have you tried anything yet? :-)

Hey Judy, I heard the Chickadees make numerous dee call's today, Some had 7 or 8 in the call. I couldn't see what they were alarmed about (unless it was me in a bright red shirt) but the cats were around earlier. Sounded very odd.