Carolina Chickadee

The Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) is a small passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. In the United States, they can be found breeding in mixed or deciduous woods from New Jersey west to southern Kansas and south to Florida and Texas. There is a gap in their range at high altitudes in the Appalachian Mountains, where they are replaced by their otherwise more northern relative, the black-capped chickadee.

Adults have a black cap and bib with white sides to the face and are 11.5–13 cm in length and 9–12 g in weight. Their back is grey, and their underparts are white with reddish brown on the flanks. They have short wings, a short dark bill, and a medium-length tail. The Carolina chickadee and the black-capped chickadee are quite similar, but the Carolina chickadee can be differentiated by its somewhat browner wings, which have brown larger coverts rather than whitish fringes, and its tail, which is also significantly shorter and more square-ended.