Chickadees are masters at staying hidden. These little birds seem to enjoy hanging out in the shadowy branches, where their lack of bright colors makes them hard to spot. It is amazing how often we tend to focus on colors to make something “pop” out of a scene.
I spotted this Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) last week at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge when it perched momentarily on an open branch. I really like the way the image turned out—a pleasant little portrait with a simple composition and limited color palette.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Beautiful photo, Mike.
Thanks, Suzette. I love to photograph and feature the commonplace birds like this one. 🙂
Well done Mike. Seasons Greetings.
What an adorable little bird and so nicely captured in your photo! This Carolina Chickadee has a very similar appearance to the Black-capped Chickadees which are frequent visitors to my backyard. If I remember correctly it is something about the coloring of wing feathers and the sounds of their calls that distinguishes each as well as habitat. One of Benjamin’s school projects last year was to maintain a printed log of birds seen at his homemade bird feeder (also a class project) every day. There were many that we knew and also several that we did not but our Google research and a book quickly helped with identifications. We did discover that the Black-capped Chickadee is the only member of the Chickadee family here in Rhode Island. It was an enlightening and fun project for both of us! Thank-you, Mr. Mike!!
Nice Mike! Enjoyed seeing your Chickadee image!
Such great detail on those feathers!!
Thanks, Molly. I am amazed sometimes that I am able to capture such wonderful details of these kinds of tiny birds. They are so wonderfully made!
Obviously, I was catching up!