Join us the evening of Thursday, September 11, for the next in our series of public lectures on climate, energy, and sustainability! New Energy Economy: Barriers, Challenges, and Opportunities by Gary Radloff, Director of Midwest Energy Policy Analysis, Wisconsin Energy Institute Energy needs and solutions are changing around the world, in the U.S., and in Wisconsin. […]
How do chickadees survive winter?![]()
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Black-capped chickadees have many adaptations to cope with freezing temperatures. They retain heat in their core by fluffing out their feathers, while the temperature of their feet remains near freezing. Similar to waterfowl, the artery that brings warm blood to their feet runs next to veins of cooled blood returning to their core. Heat is transferred between the outgoing and incoming veins, which allows chickadees to save a lot of energy regulating their temperature.![]()
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Saving energy is a key component of survival, especially in winter. At night when temperatures drop, chickadees seek shelter in tree holes and other crevices, and they reduce their body heat 20°F. This process of nocturnal hypothermia helps them save considerable amounts of energy. Still, chickadees might have to shiver throughout the night to stay warm, which can burn up most of their body fat in a single night. ![]()
To make up for these cold nights, chickadees have an incredible metabolism. They can gain as much as 10 percent of their body weight each day to replenish their body fat. During winter, chickadees have been found to eat twenty times more food than they do in summer.![]()
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Chickadees are also very efficient at finding food. In winter, they form flocks to forage together, sometimes with other species, such as nuthatches, woodpeckers, and creepers. They search for seeds and invertebrates, including eggs and pupae, that are on the ground or under bark. Chickadees also store a vast number of seeds in hidden places and have the ability to remember the location of thousands of caches. This remarkable memory is possible because chickadees grow new neurons in late fall, while they are storing food. They also have the ability to discard cells that hold old memories and replace them with new cells. ![]()
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What signs of winter do you see? Visit us for a hike or take a walk around your neighborhood looking for cyclical events influenced by seasonal changes. ![]()
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Photo: Stephanie Briand, Aldo Leopold Nature Center![]()
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#PhenologyFriday #Chickadees #WIEnviroEd #NatureIsEverywhere #NatureIsForEveryone #EveryBodyOutside
