Black-capped Chickadee, Rainy Lake, Canada, September 2018. We will not see this species in Florida, rather, it is the Carolina Chickadee that resides and visits.
Something wonderful about living here is birding with fellow Wildewood birders.
Wildewood Springs neighbor John Lynn taught me something I want to pass on. (Thank you, John.)
Perhaps like me you hear chickadee calls when you're outside. Or, you see chickadees. Well, if you see or hear a chickadee in Florida, it is the Carolina Chickadee (not the Black-Capped Chickadee). The appearance difference between the two is subtle so this is why bird-identification websites need to know the date and place of your sighting when trying to identify a bird species. Another factor with chickadees—they do not migrate (information from a conversation with birders on What's this bird?, a Facebook birding ID group).
Here is a screengrab from All About Birds that shows their difference along with descriptive information.
About the Carolina Chickadee - John James Audubon named this bird while he was in South Carolina. The curious, intelligent Carolina Chickadee looks very much like a Black-capped Chickadee, with a black cap, black bib, gray wings and back, and whitish underside. Carolina and Black-capped chickadees hybridize in the area where their ranges overlap, but the two species probably diverged more than 2.5 million years ago.
