Who has been picking the fuzz off this emerging Cinnamon Fern fiddlehead?
A black-capped chickadee is gathering lining materials for a nest!
Black-capped chickadees nest in cavities of trees with wood spongy enough to be excavated by their tiny beaks. They prefer alder, birch, and poplar stumps, snags, and rotting branches.
After around a week of the male and female excavating the nest chamber (average 8 inches deep), the female makes a nest of grass and moss lined with soft material such as rabbit fur and fern fuzz.
A few days after the nest is completed, she lays one to thirteen brown spotted white eggs.
