A chickadee gathers seeds on an early autumn afternoon...

...cool temps and a gentle breeze seemed to push me down the Little Miami Trail this afternoon, and I was thankful to be out under the towering sycamores and old oaks and buckeyes once again. Confetti yellow leaves were starting to fall in celebration of the new season, but mostly green was holding on in a stubborn (and futile) attempt to stall autumn. Chickadees were hard at work everywhere gleaning twigs and leaves for insects to eat, but they were also looking for seeds to add to their winter food caches for the long winter ahead...

A Carolina Chickadee was busy gleaning insects from brush along the trail. He was also plucking seeds from the spent flower heads. Now and then he would fly off, no doubt to hide the seeds in one of his winter food caches.  

Click here for an older post called "Titmice and chickadees cache food for winter survival" to read more about this unique ability. Chickadees have larger spatial memories than non-caching birds, and the extra brain cells (which become more numerous during the autumn) help them keep track of the seeds they hide. For an article from Lehigh University that explains how this works in a little more detail, click here. In the article, Colin Saldanha talks about how the bird's hippocampus expands by about 30% in autumn due to the creation of new nerve cells. In the spring, the chickadee's hippocampus returns to normal size.

Chickadees work hard in autumn to gather and store seeds and nuts in winter food caches to help them survive the long, cold, and grey (yikes!) winter. White-breasted Nuthatches, Blue Jays, and Tufted Titmice also stash food for the winter. 

Green is still king along the Little Miami Trail, but it better get ready to abdicate the throne, because yellow, gold, and red are ready to take over!

Titmice and chickadees cache food for winter survival

Several people asked me today if I had figured out why a group of titmice or chickadees is called a "banditry" (from yesterday's post). I wasn’t able to find anything in my books or on the Internet, so I don’t really know, but if I were to guess, it might be because these two little birds stash seeds in a food cache all autumn to prepare for food shortages in the winter ahead. In a previous post, I talked about the birds in our area that stash food. These birds have larger spatial memories than non-caching birds, and the extra brain cells (beefed up during the autumn) help them keep track of the seeds they hide. In our area, food-caching birds are White-breasted Nuthatches, Blue Jays, Tufted Titmice and chickadees.

A pencil sketch I did of my favorite bird, a Carolina Chickadee.

In the autumn, the chickadees and titmice step up their food gathering behavior, so maybe their constant trips to the feeder (or any other food source) appear to be “stealing” as they zoom in, grab a seed, and then fly off without eating it. Maybe this thievery earned them the description of a "banditry" of chickadees or titmice. Who knows...

...or maybe it's just because they appear to wear masks!