Chestnut-Backed Chickadee
Poecile rufescens
Also known as: Chestnut-Backed Titmouse
About This Species
Look for this small chickadee with a rich chestnut back and sides working through dense conifer foliage along the Pacific coast, often in mixed foraging flocks with other small songbirds. Its calls are notably higher and buzzier than other chickadee species, which helps distinguish it by ear in thick coastal forest. Any season offers viewing in its coastal conifer range, though it can be easier to locate in winter when it joins mixed flocks more readily.
Ethical Viewing Guidelines
- A distance of a few metres is typically tolerated, particularly where it visits feeders in wooded gardens, but it should still be treated as a wild bird rather than approached directly.
- Wild bird protections across its range in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada generally restrict disturbing active nests, so avoid approaching cavity nests in dead or decaying trees during breeding season.
- Leave dead wood and snags standing where possible, since this species depends on soft, decayed wood for excavating nest holes.
LCAvesPasseriformesParidae
Seasonal Activity
2,032,587 sightings · 2000–2026
Citizen science records via GBIF
All monthsThis month
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Paridae
Photo
Wikimedia Commons / Wikimedia Commons
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Occurrence data from GBIF.