Chickadee Song Note Details (1 Viewer)

Hi all, I would say Chickadees are my favorite birds. They are cute (they look like little masked bandits), tough (somehow survive Northeast US winters), smart (usually the first to find new feeders), and they show no fear of me like most birds do.

I listen to their 2-note song a lot. I've noticed there are usually 2 different songs. With one song, the second tone is 1.5 steps below the first. On a trumpet, the tones are D then B. The second song, which sometimes seems to be a response to the first, has the 1st tone the same as the 2nd tone of the first song and the second tone down 1 step. On a trumpet, the tones are B then C. Sometimes, the tones are off a half step though. Does anyone understand the details? Maybe one is a male and the other is female?

Onoviller said:

Hi all, I would say Chickadees are my favorite birds. They are cute (they look like little masked bandits), tough (somehow survive Northeast US winters), smart (usually the first to find new feeders), and they show no fear of me like most birds do.

I listen to their 2-note song a lot. I've noticed there are usually 2 different songs. With one song, the second tone is 1.5 steps below the first. On a trumpet, the tones are D then B. The second song, which sometimes seems to be a response to the first, has the 1st tone the same as the 2nd tone of the first song and the second tone down 1 step. On a trumpet, the tones are B then C. Sometimes, the tones are off a half step though. Does anyone understand the details? Maybe one is a male and the other is female?

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There is a long discussion of chickadee songs in Don Kroodsma's book, The Singing Life of Birds. In almost all North America Chickadees sing a two-toned "hey-sweetie" call which is sung over a range of pitches. The exception to this rule is on Martha's Vinyard, where there are several regional dialects, and west of the Cascades. He has 9 pages in his book devoted to chickadee songs. I'm not sure this answers your question but is interesting reading. I don't think female chickadees sing.
Also interesting is the work a doctoral student at the University of Washington, Chris Templeton, has done regarding chickadee call notes. It happens that the number of "dees" at the end of the chickadee alarm note is proportional to the level of threat from a particular predator. Thus a house cat might elicit 8 or 10 "dees" whereas a pygmy owl, a chickadee's worst nightmare, might elicit over twenty "dees". This was published inthe journal Science in June 2005. If you type in "chickadee alarm notes" into google you will be directed to web sites from the U of W explaining his research and with links to audio tracts of chickadees responding to various predators. Again, not related to your question but fascinating.
Sorry for being so long-winded.

Lots of online papers on chickadee calls and songs available here: http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/index.php

just do a keyword search for 'chickadee song' etc