Chickadee-Dee-Dee Danger

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Millions of North Americans are familiar with the call of the Black-Capped chickadee. “Chicka-dee” However, most bird-watchers know that the little chickadee communicates danger with its “chickadee-dee-dee” call. Bird-watchers also know that chickens use different warnings for dangers from the air or from the ground.

Scientists decided to see if chickadees used specialized calls for different dangers. In their first experiments they used a stuffed hawk to see what the chickadees’ in an outdoor aviary would do. However, they were only fooled once, and after that researchers had to use live hawks. After studying over 5,000 responses a pattern emerged. Small, agile raptors like hawks are more dangerous to chickadees, than, say a large, horned owl, which the chickadees can easily evade. When confronted by a smaller raptor, the birds’ “chicka” call added up to four “dee”s in rapid succession, instead to two more leisurely “dee”s. Even more “dee”s might be added if the chickadees evaluated the danger as greater. Most frightening to the little birds was a pygmy owl that rated 23 “dee”s.

God cares for all His creatures, and knowing that predation would enter the creation with man’s sin, provided them with ways to warn each other. He also gave Man His Word to warn us how to avoid sin and how to escape from it through Jesus Christ should we become entrapped.