Hi everyone! As I sit on the deck on a beautiful spring day, I have the Merlin app open. It oddly just picked up the sound of a Carolina Chickadee. I would like to preface this by saying that I absolutely know the limitations of Merlin sound ID and AI in general. I would never consider reporting a Carolina chickadee, and I highly doubt the ID, but it did bring up a bigger question for me. With our climate changing, is there any knowledge of whether the Carolinas chickadee range may be shifting? I know that Carolina/black-capped hybrids are possible as well. Are there any reports of these in Connecticut? On a fun note, I also found a new construction above our front door this morning. Our Eastern Phoebes are busy building a beautiful nest of moss! Loralee Richter Danbury, CT Sent from my iPhone

I am no expert, but here is a link to an article that may help: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/warming-temperatures-are-pushing-two-chickadee-species-and-their-hybrids-northward/ Note on the map where the overlap zone is in New Jersey. When I lived and birded there in the 1980s, the overlap zone was much farther south, around Trenton and further south. Now, the overlap zone is not in CT, but I have also read (can’t remember the source) that Carolina Chickadee genes have been found in chickadees a fair ways north of the overlap zone, and that some chickadees that look like Black-capped have been found singing Carolina-like songs. Perhaps your bird is one of these. On the song, I remember reading in older field guides that the songs were completely different. Well, I remember clearly hearing Carolina songs in southern New Jersey, and at a distance those high notes (notes 1 and 3) are completely inaudible, and all you here are notes 2 and 4, which sound exactly like Black-capped. If you don’t notice the brief pause between the 2 notes (non-existent in Black-capped song), you could really be fooled. So far, in northern Westchester county, I have not yet heard any song that I would mistake for Carolina, but I don’t spend all that much time in the field anymore. Joe Zygala South Salem, NY, just over the border from Ridgefield, CT Sent from one of my iDevices > On Apr 15, 2024, at 11:11 AM, Loralee Richter via CTBirds <ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org> wrote: > > Hi everyone! > > As I sit on the deck on a beautiful spring day, I have the Merlin app open. It oddly just picked up the sound of a Carolina Chickadee. I would like to preface this by saying that I absolutely know the limitations of Merlin sound ID and AI in general. I would never consider reporting a Carolina chickadee, and I highly doubt the ID, but it did bring up a bigger question for me. With our climate changing, is there any knowledge of whether the Carolinas chickadee range may be shifting? I know that Carolina/black-capped hybrids are possible as well. Are there any reports of these in Connecticut? > > On a fun note, I also found a new construction above our front door this morning. Our Eastern Phoebes are busy building a beautiful nest of moss! > > Loralee Richter > Danbury, CT > > Sent from my iPhone > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via email, send an email with just "join" or "leave" in the subject or body to: ctbirds-request@lists.ctbirding.org > > CTBirds, a service of Connecticut Ornithological Association - Bringing birders together statewide. Please support COA: https://www.ctbirding.org/join-us/ > > CTBirds is for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. For list rules and subscription information visit: https://www.ctbirding.org/birds-birding/ct-birds-email-list/

If you still have the Merlin recording, and it is not overly long, you can post it to eBird, and see if someone there can help identify. Also, with some editing, you can post to sites on Facebook What’s This Bird? Who knows? A. Shippee, Hamden, CT Sent from my iPad > On Apr 15, 2024, at 11:11 AM, Loralee Richter via CTBirds <ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org> wrote: > > Hi everyone! > > As I sit on the deck on a beautiful spring day, I have the Merlin app open. It oddly just picked up the sound of a Carolina Chickadee. I would like to preface this by saying that I absolutely know the limitations of Merlin sound ID and AI in general. I would never consider reporting a Carolina chickadee, and I highly doubt the ID, but it did bring up a bigger question for me. With our climate changing, is there any knowledge of whether the Carolinas chickadee range may be shifting? I know that Carolina/black-capped hybrids are possible as well. Are there any reports of these in Connecticut? > > On a fun note, I also found a new construction above our front door this morning. Our Eastern Phoebes are busy building a beautiful nest of moss! > > Loralee Richter > Danbury, CT > > Sent from my iPhone > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via email, send an email with just "join" or "leave" in the subject or body to: ctbirds-request@lists.ctbirding.org > > CTBirds, a service of Connecticut Ornithological Association - Bringing birders together statewide. Please support COA: https://www.ctbirding.org/join-us/ > > CTBirds is for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. For list rules and subscription information visit: https://www.ctbirding.org/birds-birding/ct-birds-email-list/