Finally got Chickadees to nest here

It's been a great week for birds here. To start with me and my wife were going to my mom and dads house to look after their cats while on vacation. They live in a very nice neighborhood in the western suburbs of Cleveland about a half an hour west. They in an area where there was once country property about a half a mile away. Now the country is at least five miles away as it has become all houses.

Well as we were going down a main street leading to their house, I noticed a large bird fly across the road that from a long distance I assumed was a hawk. The closer I got the hawk became a goose. As I finally got close enough to make out what it was you can only imagine how surprised I was to see a wild turkey standing in someones front yard. I was absolutely blown away. We pulled over and it just stood there as if it was not big deal for about five minutes. It was a beautiful day out and it stayed and let us watch until a lady pulling a wagon with young children in it walked by. The lady was amazed as we were. The turkey ran across the street into another back yard and hopped up on a fence and just sat there. My parents will be surprised to find out there was a turkey on the street next to theirs while they were gone.

I'm also on vacation this week so I was sitting on my couch drinking coffee when I noticed two chickadee's going in and out of the nesting box I have in the weeping cherry tree in my front yard. After three years of trying to get them to nest they have finally moved in to raise a family. For two days now they have been working constantly building their nest and the male has been busy as well not only building but chasing every other bird away from the area. It's been funny watching him and a tufted titmouse going at it every day.

So I know I said I was going to try and do blue birds this week but the chickadees have taken center stage so I will cover them and get to the blue birds soon.

The black-capped chickadee is a small (5") bird that is grey with a black cap and throat patch. It has white chest, tan belly and small white wing marks. In the picture I took today you can see one of them I caught as it flew from the box.

They are an easy bird to attract to your yard by either a proper nesting box or seed feeder. Their diet consist of insects, seed and suet. I use a cardinal/chickadee blend which consist of black oil sunflower seeds, Safflower seed and sunflower hearts. I also have a cling type feeder that only them and red breasted nut hatches use that I fill with sunflower hearts. They also visit my fly through feeder in my back yard and eat the raw peanut half's I put in there.

If your going to use a nesting box here is what you'll want to use. The entrance hole should be 1 1/8" - 1 1/2" in diameter. The height of the hole should be 6"-7" above the floor. Inside floor dimensions should be 4"X4" - 5"X5". Finally the total box height should be 9"-12". As for habitat they like suburban or rural areas with a mixture of trees and open areas. As far as placement of the box you should put it 5'-10' up on a tree or post. If you have some dead trees on your property it may be a good idea to leave one or two as they will excavate holes in those as well to nest in.

I find conflicting information on how many broods they have each year. Some sources say 1 brood while others say 2. Hopefully this will be the first of many years that they nest here and I'll be able to evaluate that my self. I will also give updates on the birds and babies as the process goes on. With any luck I may even be able to snap a photo of the babies in the nest as I check on their health and to see how many they had.

Chickadees are usually the first to find a new feeder. Once you identify their song you'll always know when they are around. There are a couple different versions but the most common is the familiar "chika-dee-dee-dee-dee". They can easily be tamed and hand fed. I often find them following me around the yard as I fill the feeders. You will often see them during the winter with other birds such as woodpeckers and nuthatches. You will often see them in flocks during the winter and once spring arrives the males become more territorial and begin to defend their territory by song and chasing other birds away. Also look for the males to start feeding the female during the courtship. He'll get an insect or seed and flies to the female who give a high thin call, quivers her wings and takes the food from the male. I've seen this a couple of times already and it's pretty cool.

So I could go on but I've given you the basic information if you want these cute little birds in your yard. If you live in Ohio you'll want to put your humming bird feeders out on April 15th. I do this every year and they usually show up here around May 5th. The reason for getting them out early is so as they migrate north they will have a place to stop and refuel. Also you never know when they just might stay. I'll be posting again before the 15th about humming birds. You can look for that post probably late Saturday or Sunday. After that I promise to get to those blue birds.