I watched in utter fascination on Tuesday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge as this Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) worked to extract seeds from the spiky seedpods of a sweetgum tree. The little bird would hang upside down with all of its weight on the stem of the seedpod and poke about with its bill inside the seedpod. Once it had found a seed, the chickadee would yank back its head to extract the seed.
Most of the time the bird would then fly to a nearby branch to consume the seed and then resume the process. Occasionally, though, the momentum generated in extracting the seed caused the chickadee to fall away and momentarily lose its balance and I was lucky enough to capture one such moment in the first image below.
The other two images give you an idea of some of the acrobatic positions used by the chickadee in its foraging. In the final photo, I believe the chickadee was using its extended wings to help stabilize itself as it sought to snag another seed.
It is good to know that there are potential food sources available during the winter for these little birds, but sure looks like the chickadee has to work really hard to gain access to those tiny seeds inside of those spiky gumball.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Nice series of images Mike!
Beautiful captures, Mike! This is one reason I admire my gumball tree.
I’m imaging the bird thinking, “great, he’s probably going to share that on Twitter!”
I think, Dan, that you are right, because as far as I can tell, Twitter is the preferred social media channel for birds–they like to tweet. 🙂
😀
🙂
Lol
Your first capture is amazing, Mike! They all are good!
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Oh great photos Mike. I love the action and movement you captured.
Wow! Awesome photo of the chickadee falling. What persistence it has.
What a fantastic action shot. There is a real sense of movement in it that I like and, in addition to capturing this behaviour and placing the chickadee in its environment, I like the way the spherical shape of the seedpods communicates with the round, curvy shapes of the bird.
Great series of images, Mike and I particularly like the one in mid air!
Wonderful action captures!
Nice, series, Mike and observation on how much work this is for these little cuties. Your first image is fantastic!
Thanks, Ellen. I contemplated going with just the first image, but decided to use the other two to give a little context to what was going on. 🙂
I love these.
Hi Mike, I think this post may have been the last one I was notified about by email! Somehow I seem to have been unsubscribed. I have resubscribed now and look forward to seeing your posts again. Funny how when something doesn’t happen, you don’t notice. Glad to see you are well and enjoying yourself with new adventures.
Thanks, Nina, for resubscribing. I am not sure how that happened, but I am definitely happy to have your back. 🙂