Thanks for the responses guys. Opinions have been mixed, so I'll leave it in eBird as equivocal (Carolina/Black-capped Chickadee). I had concerns about a couple ID points that you guys also pointed out. The lack of a prominent white "hockey stick" and his gray, rather than greenish back didn't quite fit for Black-capped, but I have a photo I took of a bird up in the Finger Lakes area of New York that had a very similar look, and there shouldn't be any Carolinas up that far north. I thought his tail looked a little long for a Carolina too. His bib is just weirdly asymetrical, and his voice was kind of a tweener, so he may just be an odd bird...I can relate. My father used to tell me that the way to catch a bird was to pour salt on it's tail, because they can't fly with salt on their tail. I was about 5 years old at the time. I went through a lot of salt, but eventually ( I think I was 27) I realized that I could probably just grab the bird if I was actually close enough to pour salt on it's tail. I wore a corrective hat for a while...it seemed to help.
Mark Johnson
Aberdeen, MD
From: Matt Hafner
To: Sean McCandless
Cc: Maryland & DC Birding
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 8:44 AM
Subject: Re: [MDBirding] Re: Interesting chickadee-Calvert Co.
I agree with Sean that this is a Carolina Chickadee, with the possibility of a hybrid. There is something going on with the bib, but the asymmetrical pattern is odd for both species of chickadees. I'm not sure it's an indication of a hybrid or just an aberrant Carolina.
About the noticeably different calls, that reminded me that I recorded a deeper sounding Carolina Chickadee at Les Eastman's house earlier this month. It absolutely stood out from the other Carolina Chickadees, but visually we saw no signs of hybridization. Unfortunately my recording doesn't have any "normal" Carolina Chickadees for comparison, just a chipping Rufous Hummingbird and Josh Emm's camera shutter.
https://soundcloud.com/mh1920/carolina-chickadee-variation
Good birding!
Matt Hafner
Forest Hill, MD
On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 7:33 AM, Sean McCandless <seanmccandless1...> wrote:
Hi Mark. In my opinion, i don't believe that the white on the cheek extends far enough down on to the back and from the photo. I can see a bit of a gray wash exteding into the white on the back side where the black meets the white and gray. That area on a Black capped (especially when the neck is extended) should be more white. The wing (which I have found from decades of photographing Black capped Chickadee is a hard thing to capture in a picture. Angle plays a big part. Your bird from what I see has a good amount of white on it, but from the picture, I have seen Carolinas with as much white. I am seeing a much grayer over all bird and not a lot of black feathers in the wing.
I think you either have a Carolina, or a Carolina X Black capped. Just my 2 cents. Check out the pictures I have taken recently this year from Cecil and my bird feeder.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/87591655@N08/8600361504/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/87591655@N08/8504469260/in/photostream
Sean McCandless
Elkton MD
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