Letter: Photo revealing of chickadees’ behaviour

Re: “In Focus” photo in the Feb. 3 edition of Northern Life.

Leanna Mongrain’s black-capped chickadee In Focus photo entitled “Sad Chickadee?” was tongue-in-cheek described as trying to tell her something.

She has actually captured a beautiful behavioural pose that can be observed by any patient bird feeder watcher who provides black oil and striped sunflower seeds as part of the repast.

The picture is a classic pose of the feeding chickadee pinioning a single seed between its two closed feet and a hard surface, in this case a pine twig. The bird then pounds on the outer shell of the seed, strips off a piece of the outer covering and pecks at and consumes the soft, nutritious inner white seed.

This explains why in the spring there are plenty of sunflower shells on the ground near the feeder. Studies have shown that chickadees can select for heavier seeds, thus the sorting sometimes seen on your feeder by the bird.

Some weevils eat the inner seed and vacate the black shell, leaving a small round exit hole. Seeds are therefore lighter. You can sometimes see this by looking at your seed collection in the bag. The insect has left before seed harvest.

For your readers’ interest, I have included a photo from left to right showing: a weevil exit hole, a healthy seed and the shell after a chickadee has opened it, revealing the white seed.

Chris Blomme
Sudbury