Chickadee scare (1 Viewer)

Hi all,

Yesterday evening there was a chickadee on the ground by the trunk of a tree. It was fluffed up, head down, not moving. Figured it was dead but lightly nudged it with my foot. It "woke up", made the chickadee sound, flew up into the tree, sang again, then flew off. Weird! We had 4" of rain earlier in the day, temp was upper 50's with a cold NE wind. Can anyone explain? Thanks,

Mike

Hi Mike and a warm welcome to you from the staff here at BirdForum.net.

Hard to say what happened here. It might have flown into a window somewhere and was a bit dazed. I wouldn't think the temps would bother it all that much as I have them here throughout the winter and there are weeks when we are in the 20 degree range. As long as it flew away, I would say there was hope for it. Hope you enjoy your time here on the forum.

Thanks for the welcome and response! Been sort of backyard feeding for 5 years and had a few window strikes but didn't even think of that this time. I say "sort of feeding" since we're in the city and it's hard to do w/o attracting the undesirables. Came across this forum quite by accident and it seems to have a ton of great features. Hope to be able to spend some time checking out everything!

Mike

Welcome, Mike, from a fellow Missourian. There is indeed a lot on information on this site. Feel free to ask any questions you might have concerning wild birds (and a lot of other topics as well). There are some pretty sharp birders who contribute to BirdForum.

Good Birding,

mhammer said:

Hi all,

Yesterday evening there was a chickadee on the ground by the trunk of a tree. It was fluffed up, head down, not moving. Figured it was dead but lightly nudged it with my foot. It "woke up", made the chickadee sound, flew up into the tree, sang again, then flew off. Weird! We had 4" of rain earlier in the day, temp was upper 50's with a cold NE wind. Can anyone explain? Thanks,

Mike

Click to expand...

Mike, about a year ago I saw a chickadee on the ground, not quite fluffed up, but wings spread far out. I too thought it was dead but didn't touch it. After a long while. it pulled itself up, shook its wings a little, as though it was shaking off water and flew off. It was lying near a birdbath, and I finally decided it had been drying off after a bath. Pure speculation on my part. Perhaps your little friend was drying off from the rain. Possible? Sure glad the little guy was not dead. Vik

Hi Mike,
Glad to here that your little chickadee is ok! They are my personal favorite! He must have gotten cold conked, like KC suggested. The behavior Vik describes almost sounds like the bird was 'anting', but I didn't know that little chickadees did this. Usually it is Jays, Cardinal, Bluebirds, but I suppose any bird can. That is when the bird deliberatly lays over and disturbs an ant hole, so that they attack and crawl on the bird, exuding a pesticide like toxin to 'kill the invader'. It is presumed that birds do this to rid themselves of irritating parasites. When they have had enough, they get up shake off (some probably have a treat or two) and fly away. Wierd.
Shelley