• Close up of Charlene the Carolina Chickadee perched on a bush branch
    Charlene the Carolina Chickadee in Tootie’s Backyard.

Charlene

the Carolina Chickadee

Charlene the Carolina Chickadee lives in Tootie’s backyard all year.

Charlene is a tiny, busy bird and is easy to miss as she flits back and forth between bush branches and Tootie and Yoshi’s roof.

You can identify Charlene by her tiny size, gray back and wings, and black cap and throat.

  • Charlene the Carolina Chickadee looking out as she clings to a thin tree

Charlene’s Home

Charlene was born in a tree cavity that her mom and dad excavated by chipping away the bark and wood with their bills.

Her mom lined the inside of their home with moss, bark, hair, and plant fibers.

Charlene and her nine siblings hatched from eggs with tiny dots and reddish-brown blotches two weeks after their mom laid the eggs.

The ten chicks lived in the nest for three weeks, and their parents fed them constantly. Over the three weeks, Charlene and her siblings ate more than 10,000 caterpillars, along with other insects.

Can you find Charlene or her family in your yard?

  • Charlene the Carolina Chickadee perched on a utility line

Charlene’s Hobbies

During the winter, Charlene sleeps in different tree cavities each night, alternating with the other chickadees in her flock.

When Charlene and her flock are together, they form a group called a banditry.

Charlene and her relatives are social birds, who communicate with each other year-round. However, outside of nesting season, they generally keep two to five feet between each other when foraging and roosting, or resting in a group.

Tootie and Yoshi often see Charlene hanging out near Tuffy, the tufted titmouse, and Ruby, the ruby-crowned kinglet, sometimes hanging upside down from twigs as she forages.

What activities are the birds in your backyard doing?

  • Charlene the Carolina Chickadee looking out from her perch on a bush with a seed in her mouth

Charlene’s Diet

Charlene is an omnivore, meaning that she eats meats as well as other types of foods. Her primary source of meat is insects, and her favorite food is spiders.

During the winter, Charlene gets half her energy from seeds and berries and half her energy from bugs. During the rest of the year, she eats bugs for nearly her entire diet, only eating seeds for roughly 10% of her food.

Charlene is a foliage gleaner, meaning that she finds most of her food by hunting for bugs among tree and bush leaves.

Like Biv, the blue jay, Charlene uses her feet to hold seeds and bugs on the branch she’s on so that she’s able to peck it open.

What other animals do you know that are omnivores?

Learn more about Charlene.

Activities

Crossword


1. Type of bird Charlene is.
2. Charlene's favorite food.
3. Name for a group of chickadees.
4. Color of Charlene's cap.
5. Type of bird Charlene might hang out with.
6. Where Charlene sleeps in a tree.
7. What Charlene ate as a nestling.
8. What Charlene's mom used to line her nest.
9. Time of year Charlene eats the most seeds and fruits.
10. Where Charlene finds most of her food.