Today we caught a very exciting and important bird for Fern Hill – Oakville! We recaptured a beautiful Black-capped Chickadee which was banded at our school in the Fall 0f 2017! She is five years old, which is quite senior for a Chickadee (or any bird this size), and is why I’ve nicknamed her “Grandmother Chickadee”.

We have caught this bird MANY times over the years, almost 29 times! We have caught her in every season: Fall, Spring, Winter, and early Summer, which tells us that she is a local bird, not a migratory bird passing through. This means we are doing an wonderful job at our school protecting their nesting habitat and providing them with lots of food, shelter, and safety.

Each time we recapture one of our banded birds, we add a line to a “recapture card” with current measurements, health updates, and the date.

We even have caught her in the Spring time during nesting season! We know she is a female because in the Spring she had a “brood patch” which is a soft and wrinkly layer of skin mother birds get while incubating their eggs and keeping their chicks warm!

Congratulations Fern Hillians on doing a fabulous job taking care of our birds and their habitats!
Katherine