Feast for a Chickadee!

I met up with a small group of Black-capped Chickadees feasting along a trail in Canatara Monday morning. They were opening up rolled leaves to find the juicy critters hiding inside. The chickadee above has a good grip on a rolled leaf!

""Leaf rollers" is a term used to describe a large group of invertebrates that protect themselves by rolling up leaves so they can hide inside from predators. I can count 7 rolled leaves in the above photo.

The tiny invertebrates weren't safe from hungry chickadees! I watched 3 chickadees as they selected, defended and ate their food. One bird kept looking behind to see if another chickadee was going to steal the prize!

There is a tiny insect morsel in her beak!

I never tire of watching these cute little black and white birds. They will be busy caching food in tree bark and other hiding holes for the winter months. Their brains actually increase in size in the fall, allowing them to remember 100 food cache locations during the cold weather!