Video: Hand-Feeding Chickadees

As many of you know, I’m an avid birdwatcher. Here in our Spokane, Wash. garden, we get nearly 100 different species of birds which is such a treat. I’d have to say that chickadees are my favorites. I thought you might enjoy this short video showing me hand-feeding chickadees.

We get both black-capped and mountain chickadees. They are incredibly bold and any time we are filling the feeders with black-oil sunflower seeds, they are right there, ready to snatch a seed while we’re still holding the feeder! Bill decided to see if they would take one from his hand and quickly discovered that, yeah, they will!

Then I got in on the act and it’s now my favorite afternoon activity. They are so inquisitive and also very fast, as you’ll see. We are careful to wash our hands well both before and after feeding them, to keep both our bird friends and ourselves healthy.

This is such a fun activity that allows us to watch birds even more closely. We’ve noticed that some of our nuthatch friends have been getting closer and are really watching what the chickadees are doing. I don’t know if they’re going to take the plunge by snatching a seed from us, but that would be a thrill! I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going with hand-feeding chickadees.