Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Supersp #36
Parus rufescens Townsend
STANFORD LOCATIONS:

Common resident throughout campus, nesting in natural cavities and old woodpecker holes in a variety of trees and habitat types. Territories often adjoin those of the Oak Titmouse, with which the chickadee competes for nest sites and, to some extent, food -- though chickadees tend to forage more often on finer foliage than titmice, which forage more frequently on branches.
  
Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs
Mating System
Dev.
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
Foraging
Strategy
?
I: ? DAYS
ALTRICIAL
TREE
 1.5 feet - 12 feet
(To 80 feet)
?
6-7
(5-9)
MONOG
F: ? DAYS
?
SEEDS
FRUIT
BARK GLEAN
BREEDING: Conif and mixed conif-decid forest, primarily in humid regions. ? broods.
DISPLAYS: ?
NEST: In natural or excavated cavity; lined with moss, fur, plant down, feathers.
EGGS: White, sparsely marked with reddish-browns. 0.6" (16 mm).
DIET: Includes spiders and their eggs; seeds include mostly conif.
CONSERVATION: Winter resident.
NOTES: Bird on nest hisses and flutters wings in response to disturbance. May compete for food resources with ecologically similar Hutton's Vireo where both are resident. In winter, form mixed-species flocks with other chickadees, kinglets, nuthatches, warblers, bushtits, Brown Creepers, and juncos.
ESSAYS: Bird Guilds; Bathing and Dusting; Mixed Species Flocking.
REFERENCES: Hertz et al., 1976; Wagner, 1981.

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Except for Stanford Locations, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).