By Laura Erickson
Wonder about the difference between a grackle and a starling? Do colorful warblers catch your fancy? What gave the Cooper's hawk its name?
Ask me -- The Bird Lady.
I'm the science editor at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca and will be answering questions submitted by readers in this occasional column. Submit your questions to Outdoors Editor David Figura at
dfigura@syracuse.com and he'll pass them on to me.
Question:I heard somewhere, way back, that a chickadee’s song changes on or around Valentine’s Day each winter. Is that true?
— J.B. from Cazenovia
Bird Lady: The song of the black-capped chickadee doesn’t change. But the male does sing more often and more intensely as spring progresses, beginning around Valentine’s Day.
The song is a three-note whistle with two of the notes connected. The way to recognize the song is with the mnemonic “Hey, sweetie.” It’s the male singing for the most part, though a few dominant females will sing it occasionally. But it is both to cement bonds between a male and female and for defending their territory.
Some studies used to imply that the “Hey, sweetie” song was not part of mate selection, but that’s not quite true. Recent paternity tests of baby chickadees indicate that on nests cared for by a male that does not sing very much, some of the babies will have been fathered by a neighboring male who sings a whole lot.
What people might be thinking about when they say the call changes during this time is the bird’s other call — the “chickadee-dee” call. It’s a basic communication sound made among flock members.
During the winter, chickadees continue to spend most of their time congregated in flocks and making that call — even when they’re singing the “Hey, Sweetie” song, which they sing most intensively in the early morning.
When I go to speak before classrooms in the late winter and spring, there will always be a student who tells me about listening to a chickadee and whistling back while waiting for a school bus.
To hear the “Hey, Sweetie” song, go to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s web site at
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-capped_Chickadee/sounds
