Chestnut-backed Chickadee using tools

February, 2007

Sandy Salmons

At the end of February 2007, Sandy Salmons observed a Chestnut-backed 
Chickadee with a stick in its mouth trying to pry suet out of the suet 
feeder in her backyard in Beachcomber.  The sighting was reported to 
the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, DC, which 
issued a report saying that this is "the first report of tool use in a 
Chestnut-backed Chickadee".  You can read the report, with pictures by 
Sandy, at:

 

Return to Index