Bird of the Week – Black-capped Chickadee

Courtesy of the Arctic Tern, we are back to Alaska birds for a while. It’s winter, it’s dark and it’s cold. Only a few hardy birds tough out the Interior Alaska winter. Chickadees have  number of strategies to allow them to survive a Fairbanks winter. One of those strategies is piloerection, fluffing up their body feathers to increase the amount of insulation. As a result, this little fellow is more than twice his usual size. It’s still not very much; a half an inch instead of a quarter inch. Imagine spending the winter outside, at -40 F, with a half…