A Brown-capped Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) in Sarpy County, Nebraska

Authors

W. Ross Silcock, Nebraska Ornithological UnionFollow
Phil Swanson, Nebraska Ornithologists’ UnionFollow

Date of this Version

9-2021

Citation

The Nebraska Bird Review, Volume 89 September 2021 Number 3, pp 136-139

Comments

Published by Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union, Inc.

Abstract

Beginning 31 May 2021, Phil Swanson captured a series of videos and photos of an apparent family group of Black-capped Chickadees (BCCH). Five birds were seen together through 2 June, 2-4 through 6 June, and 2-3 through 9 June, during which all sightings included begging. Thereafter 1-2 birds per day were seen but without interactions between them. One of the family group had a brown cap (Figures 1, 2), and was presumably a juvenile based on its propensity for begging for food and partial replacement of its greater coverts (Pyle 1997). This condition has been described as “rare” (Sibley 2011), “anomalous” (Pyle 1997), or “aberrant” (van Grouw 2006).