Can anyone ID this bird from this far away? Not usually this "puffy." He's fluffing in his bath. I had hoped it was a black-cap vireo, but maybe a chickadee?

I'd say it's a Chickadee.

Thanks 3G, I really wanted it to be a vireo

Absolutely black capped chickadee.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/g...

Great bird I.D. & info. site BTW

Chickadees are sweet too! But, yeah...I know what you mean when you really want a "new" bird.

Aawww...so cute! Yep, that looks like him. Thanks to both of you. And thanks for the website too, Ann!

YVW. I especially like that they have the thing where you can listen to their calls.
I'd love to have the chickadee --- haven't seen one of those in years & years!

This very difficult for me to do because I am not one to even want to sound like I know it all, but I have a question about your chickadee. Please do not take my comments in any other way than I am curious and would like to share what I have learned.

I know we have the Carolina Chickadee here in NJ and they have the same markings as the Black capped chickadee except their flank is grey and they have a white bib. The Black Capped has a kind of red/melon/orange flanks and a white bib. The Black Capped is also about an inch bigger in length than the Carolina and there is also a Boreal and that one has a brown cap, black bib and limited white on the cheeks and is reddish brown on the flanks. They all have black caps too.

The picture LeeAnn showed is a definite Black-capped chickadee.

OK. I will confess, I did a Carolina Chickadee in Needlefelt and that is the only reason I know the difference. I remember looking in my Stokes Field Guide To Birds to be sure I had the correct colors. This is the Eastern Region book, and you all are not near me. I am a backyard bird lover and feeder and know nothing about anything except what I read in the bird books. It shows the black capped not going as far south as TX, but the Carolina does go that far South. These ranges look like they do overlap. The book said Hybrids exist when ranges overlap. The book also says you can tell them apart by their voice. Yeah! Not this old girl.

Since I have only the Eastern Region edition, I can not tell for sure the boundaries. It is so interesting to study these little creatures. Enjoy your birds and your day. Thank you for letting me share this with you.

Well, I was waiting for a "bird person" to weigh in. I have chickadees and had gotten an ID long ago from some birders that the pic I'd taken of one was a Carolina Chickadee. So all similar chickadees I see I just assume all are Carolina Chickadees. If we have both of those in Texas, I'm gonna be confused, because looking at my book, there doesn't seem to be much difference between that one and the Black-capped Chickadee!

Jacquie, you could very well be absolutely correct. I know I have 3 bird I.D. books for Fl. alone & I can look at all 3 & wonder what the heck is going on. The photo & descriptions almost sound/appear to be different birds. It can be very vexing. I have found though that one of my books seems to be more right 99% of the time & so have learned to rely more heavily on that one than the other 2. When I compare photos & descriptions in that 1 book to actually seeing the bird in the wild it comes out on top. And how do I know that? Because there are birds that nothing else looks like (such as Osprey) & that's how I learned to trust this particular book above the others.

It can be hard to be positive.

There is very little difference in some of these birds and unless you have them all together side by side you will never know for sure. I just think it is fun to see which ones we have in each location.
Linda, the only difference is of course the size, and without one of each to compare, who can prove that? But you can see each has a white breast and on either side of the breast is the other difference. The Black Capped has the orangeish feathers on either side which is the flank (at least I thiink that is what they call it). the little Carolina has grey in that area. You could be in the area where there are both. And, remember, they said there are some hybrids on the bordering ranges. So, you may be one of the lucky people who have both.
I was a breeder of tropical birds for years. I bred and sold small and medium parrots for about 10 years until I decided to retire and sell my bird farm. I know nothing about identifying backyard birds except for what the books say. So, you can not consider me an authority. Wish I was.
Ann, I have the Audubon Society Master Guide to Birding as well as my Stokes I mentioned before, plus the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds.
They too sometimes send conflicting messages. Or I may be reading it that way.

I came on here to see if anyone was having any changes in the bird population since the hurricane Irene. I found my birds went missing during the storm and some have still not returned, including my finches, chickadees (carolina) , the cardinals and all the birds I usually enjoy all summer and especially in the winter months when it usually is much colder.
I am concerned. Thought maybe we had more hawks than usual, because I saw signs of doves being killed by hawks. The crows are around and usually crows and hawks are not both around at the same time. I have this mystery going on in my backyard and that is really what I was wanting to discuss with someone who may have any ideas of what happened. I have not found a bird group. I wonder is they are still over on cubits. I did not look there.
I could always go to DG but I wanted to try here first.

I would appreciate any ideas or leads to where I could find my answers. Thanks again for being so nice.

re: missing birds. I noticed that we had absolutely no swallows this summer. Usually, we're over-run with them.

Jacquie, I understand your wanting to know the mystery answer. While I don't have the answer for you; I can relate my experience. I lived in south coastal Fl. & in 2004 we got a direct hit from Hurricanes Frances & Jeanne. Then in 2005 we got a direct hit from Hurricane Wilma. After 2004 our birds were GONE!!!!!! Zip, zilch, nada! Buzzards yes. Pretty much everything else was gone. And then when winter came & we usually get the birds who come to our area for the winter --- we didn't get them. Then came Wilma the next year. Very, very few birds were around -- near non-existant. Again we didn't get our winter birds. And for the next couple of years you would be hard pressed to go outside & even hear a songbird much less see one. It took till around late 2007 for a few to begin showing up. By 2009 our year round bird population was rebounding as well as our winter visitors. Now as far as why they weren't there???? I don't know other than to guess. They left to avoid the 'canes? They got killed in the 'canes? And there was no food for them after the 'canes stripped the trees bare -- that is the trees that did not topple. No food, no cover. If ones left to avoid the 'canes then when they came back they realized they couldn't stay as the couldn't support themselves. I can only imagine this has happened to a degree in your area from Irene. But you should rebound faster as our devastation was more severe in terms of food & shelter for the birds.

Thanks Ladies for your comments. We had the barn swallows but they left just days before the storm. We had the earthquake and the storm within days of each other. It was crazy.

We still have the trees (we have a Christmas Tree Farm) and the other trees and bushes here. We lost six old locust but that is all. I am praying I get some of my winter birds back.
I have been feeding the tropical bird leftovers to the outside birds all summer to try and get them back. The doves and sparrows and a few black birds (gone now) starlings, crappy birds, are here but very few. Buzzards by the dozen. I keep thinking they are looking for my old butt to be laying out on the deck but I refuse to feed them. I ain't ready yet.

Well, I bought 160 lbs of bird seed for my kids and I to put in the feeders. I can only hope they find us again. It is strange, too, usually this time of year the Canadian Geese and the Snow Geese begin to move, Nothing. I have not seen many at all....not that I care becasue they make such a mess, but the absence of those flying over is scary. We live just about 20 miles inland from the ocean and usually the bird population is heavy. One lonely catbird and one blue jay are here once in awhile. We will see what happens in the coming months.
Thanks again for your help. Keep on feeding those backyard birds.