Wildlife of Corvallis: Black-capped Chickadee

The Willamette valley has a lot of plants and animals that are new to me, so I wanted to blog photos of some of them. I have a new phone with a camera in it, which I love very much, but you'll have to pardon the quality of some of the images.

Today's find is called a "black-capped chickadee" by the folks at the Audubon society booth. My own name for it is the "white-cheeked seed pig", because of it's white cheeks and it's cookie-monster-like eating habits. I've circled it in blue below. If you compare the photo with bird books, it doesn't look that great. But if this were a picture of Bigfoot, this photo would be considered SHOCKING PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE. So I ask you to judge it by those standards.



Here's another photo of the same bird by a guy on flickr named prariedog:



I think you can see the resemblance.

We have three of these seed-pigs that visit the yard as a group. Are they a breeding pair and a brother-in-law? A menage-a-trois? Three hot chicks out on the town? I can't tell because I'm a lousy chickadee sexer, and know nothing of their chickadee ways.