Chestnut-backed Chickadee

On our last day of this camping trip we spent a lazy morning enjoying the warm sun and gentle sea breezes.

The campsite we have enjoyed these two days is perched on the edge of a bluff with a cut in the tree line to provide us with the stupendous view of the Siuslaw estuary and the Pacific ocean. All the birds seem to use this opening much like a chute down to the tidal flats about 100 feet below. I and the pugs watched these arial antics all morning.

A Chestnut-backed Chickadee and her mate were busy with building a nest in the knot hole of a pine tree next to our trailer.

Home again jiggity-jig, but we will be back as quick as we can!



Chestnut-backed Chickadee: Small, energetic chickadee with chestnut-brown back, rump and flanks, and white breast and belly. Cap and throat are black; cheek patch is white. Wings and tail are dark. Legs and feet are gray-black. Song not whistled like other chickadees, more like a sparrow chipping. Resident from coastal Alaska south to central California; also in western ranges of the Rocky Mountains in southern British Columbia, southern Alberta, and western Montana. Preferred habitats are Pacific rain forest and moist areas containing conifers.
Chestnut-backed Chickadee