Chickadees are also leaders. Whenever we are out birding, we listen for chickadee chatter, for as surely as we find them, we will find a flock of other small birds. Invariably chickadees are accompanied by titmice, nuthatches, a downy woodpecker or two, kinglets and warblers. In the winter, this is one of the most reliable ways of finding a yellow-rumped warbler. In fact, their insistent scolding has often led us to such predators.
Chickadees are year-round residents over most of their range.
If you don't see them at your feeders as often during the summer as you did during the winter, it's only because they are dinning on more natural food like insects and caterpillars. Chickadees have an interesting social structure in their lives. All is not quite as carefree as they would have you believe as they wing in and out from your feeders. However, at the end of the summer, a major social shift occurs. Older birds gradually come together with several of the newly fledged young to form flocks.