Hi Folks!
 
I applaud Bill's caution. There is a wonderful hybrid area where you can experience for yourself the pitfalls of chickadee identification.  West of Hancock on I-68 is the exit for Woodmont.  If you take this exit and go a few miles south onto Long Ridge [also a Maryland WMA], you will find a confusing array of plumages and songs.  Marshall Iliff and I made our own field checklist that included Carolina Chickadee, Black-capped Chickadee, Hybid Carolina x Black-capped Chickadee and the inevitalble "chickadee sp.".  Every bird on Long Ridgde that I have seen I have put into Hybid Carolina x Black-capped Chickadee.  Individual birds may have the appearance of one of the species, but also have song and call repetoires that vary, with some indivudals giving Carolina song and Black-capped song and Carolina call notes and Black-capped call notes.  
 
Just a few miles west is Sidling Hill.  I have not found anything by Black-capped Chickadees there.  A few miles east you will discover that all of the chickadees and, by plumage and song and call, Carolina Chickadees.
 
Good Birding!
 
Jim
 
Jim Stasz
North Beach MD
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: 
To: 
Sent: Mon, 6 Nov 2006 10:57 AM
Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Black-capped Chickadee Vocalizations Heard


Bill Ellis wrote: 
 
>On Saturday afternoon, I heard the song of a Black-capped 
>Chickadee twice, and the call of a Black-capped Chickadee once, 
>in my neighbor's yard. There were no mockingbirds in the area, 
>nor any active birders. This is only an interesting observation, 
>since I believe that chickadees in the zone of overlap between 
>Carolina and Black-capped are known to exchange vocalizations, so 
>heard-only birds may not be reliably identified. I did not see 
>the bird(s). 
> 
>Bill Ellis 
>Eldersburg, MD 
> 
> > 
I have heard that in the overlap zone either species may learn to sing either or both songs, but calls are genetic and therefore more reliable. Of course if you get a hybrid individual all bets are off, but that applies to visual marks as well. Unfortuantely I don't have a direct reference for the information about calls, but the call has seemed reliable to me on birds that I have identified both visually and vocally. 
 
-- Maurice Barnhill 
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Department of Physics and Astronomy 
University of Delaware 
Newark, DE 19716 
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