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Black and white feeder bird in SoCal - Mountain Chickadee?


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A pair of birds with black-and-white striped heads and a black throats has been visiting my feeder recently. I would say that they are mountain chickadees - which are prevalent and look very, very similar - except that these birds are more lithe in form than chickadees which look a little bit pudgy to me. These birds do not have that rounded, pudgy body shape I associate with chickadees. I would say it is a red-breasted nuthatch in form except it is clearly not a nuthatch given a grey breast and - more importantly - the presence of the black throat. As with titmice, black oil sunflower seeds are tough for it to open up and it must take them to a nearby branch to pound open with its bill. If it isn't a mountain chickadee - and it might be - what else could it be? It's not a desert (black-throated) sparrow and it is lacking the yellow spot of a black-and-white warbler (which probably would not visit a feeder anyway). Skinny chickadees?

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