Family: Paridae, Chickadees and Titmice view all from this family

Description 5" (13 cm). A gray chickadee, with black cap, black bib extending onto upper breast, and gray flanks.

Habitat Coniferous or pine-oak forests at high altitudes.

Nesting 5-8 whitish eggs, frequently with reddish-brown spotting, in a fiber nest lined with grass, feathers, or fur placed in an excavated hole in a dead branch.

Range Resident in extreme southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. Also in Mexico. 

Voice   A husky chick-a-dee-dee-dee, huskier and lazier than that of the Mountain Chickadee.

Discussion This bird feeds along the outer tree canopy, often hanging upside down to pluck small insects from conifer needles. Like other chickadees, it has an ingenious arrangement of leg tendons that enables it to pull close to a branch while upside down. Vireos, warblers, and kinglets must hover above branches, and are unable to reach the undersides, so the chickadees can exploit this feeding opportunity without competition.