Overview

Mountain Chickadee: Medium chickadee, gray upperparts, black cap and bib, white cheeks and nape, and pale gray underparts. The wings and tail are gray. Bill is black, legs and feet are gray-black. It has a white eyebrow, which differentiates it from all other North American chickadees.

Range and Habitat

Mountain Chickadee: Resident from interior British Columbia south through Rocky Mountain and Cascade-Sierra chains to southern California and western Texas. Preferred habitats include dry coniferous forests, especially Ponderosa and lodgepole pines. During the summer can also be found in high-elevation aspen forests. In winter, sometimes inhabits juniper stands and river bottoms.

Breeding and Nesting

Mountain Chickadee: Five to twelve white eggs, sometimes with red brown spots, are laid in a nest made of coarse materials such as moss, lined with plant material including grass, moss, feathers, and hair, and built in a tree or snag from 1 to 23 feet above the ground, or in a nest box. Incubation ranges from 11 to 12 days and is carried out by both parents

Foraging and Feeding

Mountain Chickadee: Eats insects, spiders, eggs of both, conifer seeds, and berries; gleans food from foliage and tree bark, often by hanging upside down.

Readily Eats

Suet, Sunflower Seed

Vocalization

Mountain Chickadee: Song is a three or four note downward whistle of "fee-bee-bay" or "fee-bee-fee-bee." Call is a throaty "chick-adee-adee-adee."

Similar Species

Mountain Chickadee: Bridled Titmouse has a tuft and black line encircling the face, connecting the eye-line with the bib. Black-capped Chickadee lacks white eyebrow, lower edge of black bib more ragged, and has pale olive-brown wash on sides, flanks, and lower belly.