Wild Bird Guide: Black-Capped Chickadee (Wild Bird Guides) Paperback – August 1, 1997

This book is absolutely enchanting. It is filled with information and many beautiful full color photographs of chickadees. I am enthralled with these little birds as I live on property with eight ot nine pines, which they love. They give me much pleasure a my feeders and I am grateful to have gotten this beautiful book. I bought this gently used from Friends of The Phoenix Public Library. It arrived in beautiful shape with minor library markings from and the edges of the book carefully reinforced in clear tape by the Scottsdale Public Library. I'm am very happy to have found it and would happily buy from this seller again!

Beautiful photos and great information regarding Chickadees. Very well written and a greatreference book for future Chickadee sightings.

My wife and I love our feisty little "swarm" of DeeDees ... lots of nice little secrets and nuggets by the foremost authority on the life and behaviors of the black-capped chickadees! The photos alone are worth the price! I envy Dr. Smith's lifetime spent studying these little bosses of the woodlot ... and getting paid for it! Get the book!

Love it.

This book will give you greater appreciation for the common Black Capped Chickadee. A very intriguing species !

WILD BIRD GUIDES: BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE. By Susan M. Smith. 90 pages. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997. ISBN 0-8117-2686-X (pbk).Early this January, out of some obscure impulse, and although living in a fairly heavily built-up area, I decided to set up a birdbath and feeder in my miniscule garden. The feeder held a seed bar - sunflower seeds, mixed seeds, peanuts, oats; a fruit bar - banana, pear, apple, orange; and a 'calory' bar - honey water, and suet cake. It was an experiment. And it was wildly successful. My garden since has been filled with a constant stream of birds, both large and small, and their behavior provides a constant source of delight and interest.Of the seven or so species which regularly show up, undoubtedly the most interesting is the Shijukara, Japan's near-relative to the Black-capped Chickadee. I was intrigued by the behavior of this distinctively marked tiny bird, with it's black cap and bib, which will boldly approach within a few feet of where I sit, grab a sunflower seed, fly off to a nearby branch, and then, while firmly holding the seed between its feet, noisily pound away at it with its beak to break it open. A desire to know more quickly led me to the present book by Susan M. Smith.Smith, who is a member of the Department of Biological Sciences at Mount Holyoke University, tells us that "the chickadee's ability to use their feet in food manipulation is relatively unusual among perching birds" (p.43). Somewhat to my relief, she also assures us of the propriety of feeders since, with the ongoing destruction of habitat and foraging areas, feeders provide an essential source of food and water in winter, and the survival rates of birds is far higher in areas which have them. Her book, a brief popular treatment with a scientific flavor, offers a fascinating digest of what is currently known about this remarkable bird and includes chapters on Reproduction, Winter Flocks, Diet and Foraging, Social Behavior and Communication, Surviving the Cold of Winter, Population Ecology, Relations with Humans.The book is well-printed on high quality glossy paper, stitched, bound in a sturdy wrapper, and is stunningly illustrated throughout with full-color photographs.But although well-written and richly informative, and although the author's love and respect for the chickadee are certainly evident, there is a complete absence of personal anecdote. Readers might consider supplementing Smith's account with the following less 'scientific' but more warmly human and anecdote-filled book:HAND-TAMING WILD BIRDS AT THE FEEDER. By Alfred G. Martin. 144 pages. Chambersburg, Pennsylvania: Alan C. Hood & Company, Inc., 1963 and reprinted. ISBN 0-911469-07-9 (pbk).Both Smith's and Martin's wise observations about the chickadee are truly impressive, and no-one who is at all interested in birds will want to miss either of thesefascinating books.

You can't judge a book by its cover. The books in Stackpole's Wild Bird Guide series look rather like children's books, but although they are quite accessible, they are authoritative, written by real experts, and contain a wealth of information that serious birders and ornithologists, as well as casual birders and interested kids, will appreciate. These books are rich in photos, many absolutely beautiful and all illustrating important behaviors and/or physical features of the bird.In Black-capped Chickadee, Susan Smith, one of the leading authorities on the Black-capped Chickadee, has written a wonderful account of this splendid bird. Chapters are: General Natural History, Annual Cycle I--Reproduction, Annual Cycle II--Winter Flocks, Diet and Foraging, Social Behavior and Communication, Surviving the Cold of Winter, Population Ecology, and Relations with Humans. This book lacks the tables and scientific detail that inform the author's other chickadee book ( The Black-Capped Chickadee: Behavioral Ecology and Natural History (Comstock Book) , but the wealth of illustrations in this book and the friendly writing style make it a necessary title on the shelves of both serious researchers and chickadee aficionados everywhere.

This is a very readable book with many great photos of chickadees. Since I'm quite familiar with chickadees it didn't have a lot of information I wasn't already aware of, but there were a few tidbits that I found interesting. Being an aspiring bird photographer myself I did enjoy the photographs. Anyone who is a fan of the chickadee would enjoy this book.

livre anglophone broché souple format moyen assez récent (1997) consacré à la plus répandue des mésanges américaines la mésange à tête noir (Poecile atricapillus); l'ouvrage aborde le sujet en 8 chapitres:n°1: histoire naturelle du genre Poecile (12 pages)n°2: cycle I: reproduction (15p)n°3: cycle II; saison internuptiale: bandes hivernales (8p)n°4: alimentation(14p)n°5: comportement social et communication (14p)n°6: survie au froid et à l'hiver (8p)n°7: écologie des populations (9p)n°8: rapports avec l'homme (6p)bibliographies et index en fin; textes scientifiques sérieux sans exagérations austères, illustré de nombreuses photos couleur plus quelques cartes de distribution et gravures n&b; cette monographie d'espèce non scientifique mais complète moderne et bien illustrée ravira les ornithologues confirmés mais pourra paraître trop spécialisée aux simples amateurs d'oiseaux et de nature qui n'investissent pas dans de tels ouvrages (assez onéreux en temps normal)

A wonderful book about Chickadees! The technical language, though, may make this book boring to some lay readers and young children. This book delves into the world Black-capped Chickadees in such great detail that I would recommend it to both science and non-science folks. Lots of colourful pictures. An enjoyable read.

A lovely introduction to a single species of bird. Loaded with photos. A pleasure to read. It inspired me to read more books on bird behaviour.