Rob Bielawski kindly forwarded an eBird report with photograph of a nice
Black-capped Chickadee at a feeder in Charlottesville on Dec 9, 2017.
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41032646
Drew lists the marks “Chickadee with ragged bib, "hockey stick", bright white
cheek, buff sides, and long tail” which are all shown on his photograph. One
extra mark to look for is BCCH are darker below the eye compared to the rear of
the cheek patch (nape) - it is reversed in Carolina Chickadee. Sometimes a
photo taken with flash can obscure this a bit. On our website
www.agpix.com/snphotos I have a picture of a Carolina and 2 different
Black-capped Chickadees all at the same perch taken with fill flash (on page
5). The one has the cheek slightly overexposed which makes it more difficult to
see the contrast. If you are using a photograph to identify your bird and the
whole cheek looks white just reprocess the image until you can see contrast
detail in the cheek which will indicate where it is darkest. These images were
taken at our bird feeder in November 2016 and we had good numbers all through
the winter Jan – mid Apr of 2017.
If Drew sees this post could you indicate if the bird had been at your feeder
fort a while. So keep your eyes open - Rob
Professor Robert Simpson
Contact for Ornithology, Mycology, Dendrology, Mammalogy, Ichthyology,
Herpetology, Ecology, Field Botany and other Field Biology oriented classes
Program contact for Outdoor and Nature Photography Careers Certificate
Best form of contact is email: rsimpson@xxxxxxxx
Office Hours: Tue. 11:30am - 1:00 pm, 3:00 - 4:30pm;
Wed. 11:30am - 1:00pm, 3:00 - 5:00pm, 7:00 - 7:30pm;
Thur. 11:00am - 2:00pm
