Adult. Photo: Daniel Arndt/Flickr Creative Commons
Poecile hudsonicus
| Conservation status | Wide range in remote forests of far north probably helps give species a secure future. |
|---|---|
| Family | Chickadees and Titmice |
| Habitat | Conifer forests. Mainly in forests of conifers, especially spruces, but also in some mixed forest. Occurs in low stunted spruces as far north as treeline. At southern edge of range, found in spruce bogs in east, high mountain forest in west, barely south of Canadian border in either region. |
Forages mostly by moving about in dense conifers, gleaning insects from surface of twigs, needles, or trunk. May probe in bark crevices, and may take food while hovering briefly. Also will extract seeds from cones, and will take seeds from deciduous trees such as birches. May store food and retrieve it later.
5-8, sometimes 4-9. White, with fine reddish brown dots often concentrated at larger end. Incubation is by female, 11-16 days. Male feeds female during incubation. Young: Female stays with young and broods them much of time at first, while male brings food. Later, both feed nestlings. Young leave nest at about 18 days. 1 brood per year.
Female stays with young and broods them much of time at first, while male brings food. Later, both feed nestlings. Young leave nest at about 18 days. 1 brood per year.
Mostly insects and seeds. Feeds on a variety of insects, including many caterpillars in summer, plus moths, beetles, and others, also spiders. Eats many insect eggs and pupae, especially in winter. Also eats seeds of various trees.
May mate for life, the birds remaining together all year. Nest site is in hole in tree, either natural cavity or old woodpecker hole; chickadees may also excavate their own site or enlarge an existing hole. Site is usually low, 1-12' above the ground. Both sexes help with excavation, but only female builds nest inside. Nest has foundation of moss, bark strips, lichens, feathers, lining of animal hair and plant down.
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.
The state's newest bird atlas shows species shifting northward over the past 20 years—a pattern that is being seen nationwide, experts say.
After wildfires, grasslands and deciduous woodlands are replacing evergreen boreal forest and transforming the state's terrain and ecology.
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