Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Poecile atricapilla

A slightly different view of a little Black-capped Chickadee taken today when I went down to the park. The two Great Horned Owls who sat together in a tree had disappeared but the young one was still in its usual grove of trees.

I seem to walk over to the same log each time at the moment (just down the path from where the two Great Horned Owls sit in their tree). As you can see, I also choose the same bit of the log, where I can get a view that has little behind it, thus giving me a somewhat more blurred background.

This is a favourite little bird in Alberta and it is found at garden birdfeeders as well as in woodlands. This one was down in one of my local parks. It is a very humbling experience to have them fly down to one's outstretched hand. They are such a welcome sight during the long winter months when there are far fewer things to see.

Quite a dainty picture of the popular little Black-capped Chickadee. Scientists at Lehigh University have found that "seasonal neuronal growth in adult chickadees results in a 30% increase in brain size each fall! The researchers hypothesize that the chickadee's brain swell may be related to the storing of complex spatial information. Each chickadee caches seeds in small pockets over a wide area, and these seed reserves provide the bird's nourishment throughout the winter. Perhaps what is more surprising is that the bird's brain shrinks again in the spring." Wish my brain had that capability, too, then I'd only lose things in the summer time!