{"id":44,"date":"2015-11-01T10:29:36","date_gmt":"2015-11-01T10:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/studentblogs.viu.ca\/cbch\/?p=12"},"modified":"2017-08-23T17:31:54","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T17:31:54","slug":"the-iconic-chick-a-dee-call-of-the-cbch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/2015\/11\/01\/the-iconic-chick-a-dee-call-of-the-cbch\/","title":{"rendered":"The Iconic \u201cChick-a-dee\u201d Call of the CBCH"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>All\u00a0songbirds, including the Chestnut-backed Chickadee (<em>Poecile rufescens<\/em>), use\u00a0their voice\u00a0as a form of communication. These unique calls and songs\u00a0all have different inherent purposes. Some of them may act as warnings, while others can be used to attract a mate.\u00a0Each song may even serve multiple functions on it\u2019s own. These acoustic communications are either\u00a0inherited through genetics, or are learned by the juvenile bird.\u00a0The learned calls, similar to the way humans acquire speech,\u00a0can\u00a0take time to master.\u00a0This learning curve\u00a0may account\u00a0for regional\u00a0differences in call patterns and also for the differences between\u00a0closely related species.\u00a0The chickadees\u00a0iconic chick-a-dee call is one of these.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chestnut-backed Chickadee:<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_85\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 322px;\">\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/studentblogs.viu.ca\/cbch\/files\/2016\/10\/DSC_0468_edit3.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[12]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-85 \" src=\"http:\/\/studentblogs.viu.ca\/cbch\/files\/2016\/10\/DSC_0468_edit3-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_0468_edit3\" width=\"312\" height=\"211\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">When Chestnut-backed Chickadees find a food source, they let their flock mates know by calling to them. One of these calls is the learned \u201cchick-a-dee\u201d call(1). Photo credit to Stephanie Wetten<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Chestnut-backed Chickadee (CBCH)\u00a0has it\u2019s own unique chick-a-dee call. This call\u00a0has many purposes, but is mostly used to keep in contact or as a signal for food.\u00a0Specifically in Chestnut-backed Chickadees, this call can also be used as a territorial defense. It has been heard around\u00a0sun rise\u00a0to re-establish territorial boundaries(2).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Listen for the Chestnut-backed Chickadees\u00a0\u201cchick-a-dee\u201d call here:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LUXZmQ8EGUw?feature=oembed\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Video credit to 23thunderjet, from YouTube(3).<\/p>\n<p>The chick-a-dee call made by the Chestnut-backed Chickadee is comprised of four different note types. These notes ( A, C, D, and Dh) can be separated visually by their individual\u00a0spectrograms and can be seen laid out below(2).<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 714px;\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"imgview-full\" src=\"http:\/\/imageserver.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.viu.ca\/img\/imageqv\/actual\/4cn\/20091001\/8163686.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMNHr7ESepq84zOX0OLCmr02epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS\" alt=\"\" width=\"704\" height=\"345\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The four note types (A, C, D, and Dh) found in the chick-a-dee call of the Chestnut-backed Chickadee, courtesy of the Journal of Acoustical Society of America. (2)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The notes are easily differentiated by their appearance on the spectrogram. A, C, and D are completely different, while Dh is a hybrid note containing elements of both\u00a0A and D<em>.<\/em> These notes are\u00a0relatively fixed, but can differ slightly between individuals and between different\u00a0regions. For example, the Chestnut-backed Chickadees found\u00a0on\u00a0Vancouver Island\u00a0have different call variations than CBCHs from California(2).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Other Chickadees:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>All chickadee species use a form of the chick-a-dee call that are unique to each individual species. They are not identical in their acoustic makeup, but are comparable overall(2).\u00a0These variations in the call may reflect the different purposes it can serve in the\u00a0different species or may just be a by product of the years of speciation and the separation of the chickadee lineages.<\/p>\n<p>The Boreal Chickadee (<em>Poecile hudsonica<\/em>) alters it\u2019s chick-a-dee call by adding an extra note. Instead of the four notes produced by the Chestnut-backed Chickadee, this species uses five note types. This includes the A, C, D, and Dh of the CBCH with an additional B note. This note is shown\u00a0to be a transition between A and Dh(4).\u00a0These five\u00a0notes can be seen below(4).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_97\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"width: 574px;\">\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/studentblogs.viu.ca\/cbch\/files\/2016\/10\/Boreal_Chickadee.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[12]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-97\" src=\"http:\/\/studentblogs.viu.ca\/cbch\/files\/2016\/10\/Boreal_Chickadee-300x134.jpg\" alt=\"Boreal_Chickadee\" width=\"564\" height=\"264\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The five different note types (A, B, C, D, and Dh)\u00a0found in the Boreal Chickadees chick-a-dee call. It shows an extra B note as compared to the same call of the Chestnut-backed Chickadee. Figure from the Journal of the\u00a0Acoustical Society of America(4).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The call\u00a0is thought to have similar purposes to that of most other chickadee species(4).<\/p>\n<p>Listen here for the Boreal Chickadees \u201cchick-a-dee\u201d call:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/soPWkijZbYQ?feature=oembed\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Video credit to MDuchek, from YouTube(5).<\/p>\n<p>Another chickadee species that\u00a0modifies it\u2019s\u00a0chick-a-dee call is the Black-capped Chickadee (<em>Poecile atricapilla<\/em>). This species uses a four note system that\u00a0looks like\u00a0a combination of both preceding species\u2019. It uses the notes A, B, C, and D as shown below(1).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_98\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 429px;\">\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/studentblogs.viu.ca\/cbch\/files\/2016\/10\/Blackcapped_Chickadee.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[12]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-98\" src=\"http:\/\/studentblogs.viu.ca\/cbch\/files\/2016\/10\/Blackcapped_Chickadee-300x201.jpg\" alt=\"Blackcapped_Chickadee\" width=\"419\" height=\"286\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Black-capped Chickadees chick-a-dee call displaying the four note system it uses. (A, B, C, C, D, D, D respectively) This call combines elements from both the Chestnut-backed Chickadee and the Boreal Chickadee. Figure credit to the Canadianan Journal of Zoology(1).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The chick-a-dee call is not used as a territorial defense in the Black-capped Chickadees. It retains the other purposes though, like alarm, contact, and to mobilize the flock. This species is known for using the amount of final D notes to convey the urgency of the call. For example, the greater the threat the more D notes there are at the end of the chick-a-dee call(1). Note that this function is not seen in the other two species mentioned above.<\/p>\n<p>Listen here for the Black-capped Chickadees \u201cchick-a-dee\u201d call:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/51FNXBWhyAg?feature=oembed\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Video credit to graywulffe,\u00a0from Youtube(6).<\/p>\n<p>All species of chickadee use the chick-a-dee call for multiple purposes. Some are similar between species and others have species-specific meanings. These differences may be\u00a0related to the different acoustical makeup of each species\u2019 chick-a-dee call. Some of the differences may be partly attributed to the learnt nature of these calls, and\/or the years of speciation\u00a0between the chickadees.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>-Stephanie Wetten<br \/>\nVIU Ornithology 2015<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>References:<br \/>\n1.Charrier, I., Bloomfield, L.L., Sturdy, C.B. 2004. Note types and\u00a0coding in parid vocalizations. I: the chick-a-dee call of the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus). <em>Canadian Journal of Zoology<\/em>. 82.5, pp. 769-779<br \/>\n2.\u00a0Hoeschele, M., Gammon, D.E., Moscicki, M.K., Sturdy, C.B. 2009. Note types and coding in parid vocalizations: the chick-a-dee call of the chestnut-backed chickadee (Poecile rufuscens). <em>Journal of the Acoustical Society of America<\/em>. 126:4, pp2088-2099.<br \/>\n3.\u00a023thunderjet. Chestnut-backed chickadees calling [Internet].\u00a0YouTube; 2014 Oct [cited 2015 Oct. 30] Available from https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LUXZmQ8EGUw<br \/>\n4. Moscicki, M. K., Hoeschele, M., Bloomfield, L. L., Modanu, M., Charrier, I., Sturdy, C. B. 2011. Note types and coding in parid vocalizations: the chick-a-dee call of the boreal chickadee (Poecile hudsonicus). <em>Journal of the Acoustical Society of America<\/em>. 129:5, pp. 3327-3340<br \/>\n5. MDuchek. Boreal chickadee [Internet]. YouTube; 2010 Oct [cited 2015\u00a0Oct 31] Available from https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=soPWkijZbYQ<br \/>\n6. graywulffe. Black-capped chickadee (Poecile articapillus) \u201cchicka-de-de-de\u201d song 10apr2010 [Internet]. YouTube; 2010 Apr [cited 2015 Oct 31] Available from https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=51FNXBWhyAg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All&nbsp;songbirds, including the Chestnut-backed Chickadee (Poecile rufescens), use&nbsp;their voice&nbsp;as a form of communication. These unique calls and songs&nbsp;all have different inherent purposes. Some of them may act as warnings, while others can be used to attract a mate.&nbsp;Each song may &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/studentblogs.viu.ca\/cbch\/2015\/11\/01\/chick-a-dee-call_cbch\/\">Continue reading <span>&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":295,"featured_media":169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[31,36,37,32,38,33,39,15,34,35],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stephanie","tag-biol-325","tag-black-capped","tag-boreal","tag-chestnut-backed","tag-chick-a-dee","tag-chickadee","tag-chickadee-call","tag-uncategorized","tag-viu-ornithology","tag-wetten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/295"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}