Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.

Because I’m a product of the rural southeast, this was my childhood chickadee. The Carolina piece of its common name was assigned by the (in)famous ornithologist John James Audubon during one of his visits to South Carolina, and the chickadee moniker was inspired by the contact (or alarm) call shared by all North American members of the Poecile genus. While the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), the Carolina’s northern cousin, truly has a chick-a-dee-dee-dee, chick-a-dee-dee-dee contact call, the Carolina chickadee’s version is inconsistent, even sloppy, and sped up or slurred a bit, as well as extended: ah-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee, chick-chick-dee-dee-dee-dee. The Southerner in me likes to think of the Carolina’s chick-a-dee as the crunk version of the black-capped classic.

During the winter months, Carolina chickadees flock, and each flock member has a rank. Curiously, about 20% of chickadees will “flock switch.” In some cases, these individuals stay with one flock for part of the season and then join another flock for the remainder. In others, the bird will move back and forth between flocks. These “flock switchers” occupy different ranks in each flock – and that rank matters a great deal. Come spring, lower ranking birds must travel farther to successfully claim a territory and, as a result, many don’t nest that season. By contrast, high-ranking, dominant birds establish breeding territories in the same area in which their winter flock, um, flocked. Pretty good deal – as Lil Wayne put it, that chickadee’s “got a deck full of aces.”

Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).

Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.