During the darkest days of Alaska’s winter, black-capped chickadees stuff themselves with enough seeds and frozen insects to survive 18-hour nights. Where the chickadees spend those long nights was a mystery until a biologist tracked them. Susan Sharbaugh spent many winter nights trying to find out how a creature as light as a handful of […]
Alaska chickadees have proven themselves brainier than Colorado chickadees. A researcher at the University of California Davis once compared black-capped chickadees from Anchorage to chickadees from Windsor, Colorado, and found that the Alaska birds cached more sunflower seeds and found the seeds quicker when they later searched for them. The Alaska chickadees also had brains […]
Uksullaq – ChickadeeUksullaq aturtaartuq ugnerkami. – The Chickadee always sings in the spring. Alaska is home to five species of chickadees, each with a different range. The most common and widely distributed variety is the black-capped or Yukon chickadee (Poecile atricapillus). These small birds thrive in Alaska’s meadows and forests, and can be found across […]