Chickadees
I see more chickadees in the winter than I do any other time of year. When they're nesting in the summer, they seem to stick to the forest, rarely venturing near the feeders. Maybe they figure it isn't worth it with big birds like rose-breasted grosbeaks hanging around and hogging the seeds. But probably the main reason I see more chickadees in the winter is that they're one of the few birds to stick around during a Minnesota winter. That makes me like them. They're tough little birds. (I also think they're perfectly attired with their black caps and elegant gray feathers, but that's a whole other topic.)
Chickadees have a few strategies to survive a winter night in the north woods. They have more feathers in the winter than they do in the summer. They eat every single day, and if they can't find food sources, they turn to their caches — little crevices in tree trunks where they've hidden seeds for hard times. Chickadees also squeeze into little nooks and crannies at night for added protection, and they puff their feathers up to increase their insulating qualities.
Last, chickadees lower their body temperatures from about 107 degrees Farenheit to just 86 degrees. This state of torpor allows them to burn up less of their fat reserves that they would if they had to maintain a higher body temperature all night.
I learned most of what I know about chickadees from reading Bernd Heinrich's Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival, where he talks about how different animals (from birds to turtles, frogs, black bears, beavers and lady beetles) survive the winter. One of my favorite parts of the book is where Heinrich tests the insulating power of a squirrel nest by tucking a heated potato into it. Yes, a potato. (You can read my review of the book for the Minneapolis Star Tribune if you're interested.)
Back to chickadees. Of course the word chickadee sounds like the bird's song — or at least one of their songs. (It's really chick-a-dee-dee-dee, but you get the point.) Well, the same thing is true for the word chickadee in other languages. In Ojibwe, the name for chickadee is gijigaaneshii, in Cherokoee it's tsikilili, and in Lakota it's skipipi. I liked learning all of that so much I made a little sampler out of the words:
I guess everyone likes a little onomatopoeia.A few years ago, the Minnesota DNR (Department of Natural Resources) asked people in the state to vote for their "favorite bird." I voted for the chickadee, but chickadees didn't win. Neither did the state bird, the common loon. Instead, people said the cardinal was their favorite bird.
I get it — cardinals are beautiful, especially in winter when you see them against the snow. But voting for a red bird seems sort of obvious to me. Chickadees are a little more subtle than that. Understated. Unassuming.
My kind of bird.
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