The Black-capped Chickadee
Lacking the semi-domestic status of wren and martin, the Black-capped Chickadee is not a regular bird-house addict. He prefers the seclusion of some unfrequented wood. Yet, not uncommonly, he is enticed by a bird house. The specifications and illustrations for the wren house will do for the chickadee. However, a cylindrical and smaller chamber with somewhat larger entrance (1⅛ inch) is more likely to appeal to his uneducated taste. He is still a bird “with the bark on,” and his house should be quite literally in keeping. The author personally much prefers to select a hollow branch, from which he cuts a foot-long section. He then drills an entrance hole near one end, nails a piece of slab in place for the bottom, provides a removable lid of the same material, and thus constitutes himself a proxy for the Downy Woodpecker in providing the chickadee with a home. (See [Plate II].)
Figure 2. A Chickadee Family.
A wood lot or a neglected old orchard bordering a wood is the place for the chickadee house. See [Table I] for measurements.
Other Chickadees
The Mountain and other chickadees share the natural nesting habits of the Black-cap. Since this group is composed of birds of practically uniform size, a house for any species should be the same as that described for the Black-cap.
However, chickadees are in general birds of the woods. Few or none come so near to being birds of “home grounds” as do the Black-caps. Houses for them, therefore, will be appropriate chiefly about woods homes or camps.