Bird lore - Project Puffin

The Migration of North American Birds
Compiled by Prof. W. W. Cooke, Chiefly from Data in the Biological Survey
With a Drawing by Louis Agassiz Fuertes
(See Frontispiece)
CHICKADEE
The Chickadees of the genus Penthestes are among the best examples of
resident birds, but not all of the individuals are strictly non-migratory. The
Black-capped Chickadee {Penthestes atricapillus atricapillus) is the best known
and has the widest distribution; including its subspecies, it ranges from ocean
to ocean and from the middle United States to high northern latitudes. It
has been separated into four forms: The eastern Chickadee breeds from central
Missouri, northern Indiana, and northern New Jersey, north to Hudson Bay
and Newfoundland; it also breeds in the AUeghanies south to North Carolina.
A few individuals are found in the winter a short distance south of the breed-
ing range.
The region of the Great Plains south to southern Kansas, east central
Oregon, southern Idaho, northeastern Utah and the Rocky Mountains, south
to northern New Mexico, is occupied by the long-tailed Chickadee (P. a.
septentrionalis) , extending thence northward to the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska,
central Mackenzie and southwestern Keewatin. While the birds of the Rocky
Mountains have only an altitudinal movement, descending during the winter
one or two thousand feet below their svimmer home, some of the individuals
breeding on the plains wander south at this season several hundred miles to
-central Texas. The range of the long-tailed Chickadee is cut off from the
Pacific by that of the Oregon Chickadee {P. a. occidentalis) , which extends
along the coast from southern Oregon to northern British Columbia. In the
far north, stiU a fourth form, the Yiikon Chickadee (P. a. turneri), inhabits
northwestern Alaska, north and west of Cook Inlet.
CAROLINA CHICKADEE
The southeastern United States, from the Ohio Valley southward and east
of central Texas, constitutes the range of the Carolina Chickadee and its two
forms or subspecies. One of these latter, the Florida Chickadee {Penthestes
carolinensis impiger), occurs in east central Florida. The other, the Plum-
beous Chickadee (P. a. agilis), ranges over the eastern half of Texas north of
Beeville and the eastern two-thirds of Oklahoma. The remainder of the
southeastern United States is occupied by the typical Carolina Chickadee (P.
c. carolinensis) from the Gulf of Mexico north to southwestern Missouri, cen-
tral Illinois, central Ohio, southwestern Pennsylvania, and central New Jer-
sey. It is probable that this species is strictly non-migratory throughout all of
its range.
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