I generally have trouble identifying trees, but one that I can often pick out is an American Sweetgum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua), thanks to its distinctive spiky balls. At certain times of the year the ground in various part of Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge is carpeted with the spiky seedpods, making walking a bit uncomfortable.
Last Friday I watched a Carolina Chickadee as it extracted seeds from some of the spiky sweetgum balls still hanging from the tree branches. The chickadee would hang from its claws from one of the balls and thrust its beak into the center of the ball. Sometimes the long stem of the ball would sway a bit, but I never saw one give way—either the stem is really strong or the chickadee is really light (or both).
The chickadee was high in the tree, but I managed to capture this cool shot of the little bird in action.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
What a winner of a shot, Mike!
Thanks, Chris. It was fun watching the chickadee and I was really happy that I managed to capture some of the action.
I couldn’t help thinking to myself ~ wheee! ~ I image the ball swings a fair bit when a bird lands on it 😀
I laughed when I read your comment, Liz. The spiky ball does swing a bit when the chickadee lands and also when it thrusts its beak into it to extract the seeds. According to a bird identification guide, a chickadee weighs only 8 to 12 grams.
[…] this month I did a posting that featured a Carolina Chickadee that was also extracting seeds. In that case, the chickadee was […]