Black-capped chickadee
Poecile atricapillus
Bird
Small, year-round resident songbird of northern North America and a familiar feeder visitor. It is an insectivore through the breeding season - parents feed nestlings almost entirely on caterpillars and other arthropods gleaned from foliage and bark, which is why the keystone native trees that host the most caterpillars (oaks, cherries, willows, and aspens/cottonwoods) directly determine how many chickadees a landscape can raise. In fall and winter it shifts to roughly half plant matter (seeds and small fruits) and caches food in bark crevices for later retrieval. A cavity nester, it excavates or enlarges holes in soft, rotted snags and readily uses nest boxes.
Conservation
IUCN Red List: Least Concern, with a large range and a stable-to-increasing population. Common and widespread; no special protection status. Its value here is as the textbook example of why caterpillar-rich native host trees matter - fewer host plants means fewer caterpillars and fewer chickadees.
Plan for this species
Location-fit plant set for Chicago, IL: host and specialist plants first, then nectar, fruit, seed, foliage, and shelter plants that still fit the current and mid-century climate read.
0 essential relationships / 6 supporting plants
Host/specialist links: 0
Forage/pollination links: 1
Shelter links: 5
Relationship roles: 2
Eastern hemlock
Supporting / Seed plants
Chickadees glean hemlock seed and overwintering insects from the foliage and cones and shelter in the dense evergreen crown; recorded as a regular forager of conifer seed within the hemlock's northern range.
American plum
Supporting / Shelter plants
Black cherry
Supporting / Shelter plants
Black willow
Supporting / Shelter plants
Bur oak
Supporting / Shelter plants
Chokecherry
Supporting / Shelter plants
Plants in the catalog
Seed plants · 1
Chickadees glean hemlock seed and overwintering insects from the foliage and cones and shelter in the dense evergreen crown; recorded as a regular forager of conifer seed within the hemlock's northern range.
Shelter plants · 19
Chickadees are resident year-round in balsam fir country and depend on dense evergreen cover through a boreal winter for roosting and for shelter from wind. They also excavate nest cavities in soft rotten conifer snags, which balsam fir produces early because heart rot arrives well before the tree does.
A generalist here rather than a specialist, but the structural value is real: dense evergreen spruce crowns are the thermal cover that lets small birds survive northeastern winter nights, and chickadees roost and forage in them heavily. They also excavate nest cavities in soft standing dead spruce. The boreal chickadee is the true spruce-fir specialist of this pair and has no entry in this wildlife catalog, so it is named here rather than wired as a relationship.
Mature oaks provide cavities, bark-foraging surfaces, and the abundant caterpillars that cavity-nesting songbirds rely on to raise their young; recorded as plausible for this species rather than a Shumard-specific documented tie.
Range
Resident across the northern United States and most of Canada, from Alaska and the Yukon east to the Maritimes, dipping south through the Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains.
Sources & citations
Cite this page
Use this citation for the Plotwright wildlife record. Use the source cards below to explore the references that informed its taxonomy, range, conservation, host plants, foraging, and habitat.
Plotwright. (n.d.). Black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus). Retrieved 2026, August 20, from https://plotwright.com/wildlife/black-capped-chickadee
Sources used for this record
This record is compiled from the sources below.
Cornell Lab: Black-capped Chickadee
Bird-guide reference for identity, northern North American range, low-concern status, insect/seed feeding, cavity nesting, and native tree/nest-box garden support.
GBIF: Poecile atricapillus
GBIF backbone record confirming the accepted species name and aggregating georeferenced occurrence records that map its North American distribution.
iNaturalist: Black-capped Chickadee
iNaturalist taxon page corroborating the accepted name and mapping verified community observations across its range.
Black-capped chickadee - Wikipedia
Encyclopedia overview covering identification, northern North American distribution, and breeding and caching life-cycle details.