BELINDA GROVER PHOTOGRAPHY

STOPS ALONG THE WAY

15 thoughts on “WHAT’S UP CHICKADEE”

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  1. Laura
    September 21, 2019 at 9:45 pm

    Cute photo, Belinda! I did some reading about chickadees a couple of years ago. Chickadees don’t molt like other birds. They do lose feathers occasionally, but they don’t really molt. The reason I started reading/researching them was because I started noticing some of them had buff colored feathers on the sides of their bodies and some didn’t. I thought it was a sign of maturity.

    They start growing, new, additional feathers in the late summer/early fall and they have that tanish/buffy color to them. The new feathers are thicker and heavier than their other feathers and can actually increase their body weight significantly..They do that to help insulate their bodies in the bitter cold months ahead. The difference between the outside temperature and the inner core of their body can be as much as 100 degrees Fahrenheit. They are truly remarkable little birds. Another fun fact -their hippocampus increases by up to 25% during that same time that they grow the additional feathers. When they store seeds all summer, they would never remember where they all are when winter arrives, so, the hippocampus increases – which expands their memory, allowing them to find the seeds they stashed all summer, then, in the spring it shrinks back to normal, until late summer, early fall. Remarkable, indeed!

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  2. wordsfromanneli
    September 8, 2019 at 10:57 am

    I looked it up and found out that they moult in the spring and the fall, and this little guy seems to be getting new wing feathers. Some of them are still quite small. But he may also have sat on some wet branches and gotten a bit wet. Either way, he’s still pretty.

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  3. tumbleweedstumbling
    September 8, 2019 at 10:04 am

    My totally uneducated guess is this is a bird equivalent of a teenager only just getting adult looking plumage.

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  4. bayphotosbydonna
    September 8, 2019 at 8:46 am

    I think (s)he is adorable! ❤

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  6. Adele Brand
    September 8, 2019 at 6:22 am

    Just having a bad hair day, perhaps! Very cute little thing.

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  7. Anne
    September 8, 2019 at 2:36 am

    It is looking at you curiously. A lovely little bird.

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