Chickadees, such as the widely known Black-capped or Carolina species, are small, non-migratory songbirds recognized for their energetic movements and bold curiosity. These tiny birds have a high metabolic rate, requiring them to constantly seek calorie-dense food sources to maintain their body temperature, especially during colder months. Weighing less than half an ounce, a chickadee must consume a significant portion of its body weight in food daily to survive. Understanding their nutritional needs is crucial due to their small size and permanent residency in northern climates.
Wild and Natural Diet
The natural diet of a chickadee fluctuates dramatically between seasons, driven by the availability of high-protein and high-fat resources. During the warmer spring and summer months, invertebrates form the bulk of their diet, making up 80 to 90 percent of their intake. They are highly effective at gleaning insects, including caterpillars, insect eggs, larvae, and spiders, from the foliage and bark of trees. This protein-rich diet is particularly important during the breeding season when they are feeding their young.
As temperatures drop in fall and winter, the chickadee’s diet shifts to a greater reliance on plant matter, which can account for up to 50 percent of their food intake. They forage for wild seeds, small berries, and tree buds, and they are adept at finding dormant insects and pupae hidden in tree crevices. Occasionally, they will also consume animal fat from carrion, demonstrating their need for concentrated energy sources. This dietary flexibility allows these small birds to remain active year-round without migrating.
Preferred Feeder Foods
To meet their intense energy demands, chickadees are highly attracted to feeder foods that provide concentrated calories and fat. The preferred choice is the black oil sunflower seed (BOSS), which is packed with approximately 40 percent fat and a high level of protein. Black oil varieties are favored over striped sunflower seeds because their shells are thinner and easier for the chickadee’s small beak to crack open. The thin shell of the BOSS makes the nutrient-rich kernel easily accessible.
Suet is another popular food, especially during the winter, as it delivers concentrated animal fat that can offer twice the calories of seeds by weight. This substance helps the birds quickly replenish energy lost from overnight drops in body temperature. Providing shelled or crushed peanuts and peanut pieces also offers excellent nutrition, as these are rich in healthy fats and protein. Chickadees readily accept protein supplements like dried or live mealworms, which mimic their natural insect diet. When purchasing seed mixes, avoid blends heavy in fillers like millet and cracked corn, which chickadees typically ignore.
Unique Foraging and Storage Behaviors
A defining characteristic of chickadee feeding is their methodical caching, or hoarding, behavior, which is a survival mechanism for long winters. A chickadee will take a single seed from a feeder, fly to a secluded location, and hide the item in a unique spot, such as a bark crevice, under lichen, or in a knot hole. They practice scatter hoarding, placing each food item in a different location, and they can cache hundreds of seeds in a single day. They possess a spatial memory capable of recalling the locations of these individual caches.
The technique they use to process a seed is distinct due to their small, pointed bill. When a chickadee takes a seed, it flies to a nearby perch, grips the food between its feet, and uses its beak to hammer the shell open. This “hold-and-hammer” method allows them to carefully extract the kernel. At the feeder itself, chickadees exhibit a clear social hierarchy, with dominant individuals taking a seed and leaving before the next bird takes its turn.