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The chickadee's two-note whistle in late winter

January to March

The chickadees that have been at the feeder all winter start adding a second sound: a clean two-note whistle with the second note lower, nothing like the buzzy chickadee-dee-dee. The buzzy call does not stop, and the two sounds keep different hours, the whistle at first light and the call more around the middle of the day.

Why this time of year

Mass Audubon puts the start of the whistled song in late winter here, and it builds week by week as the birds pair off ahead of nesting, so the same walk gets more of it every week until spring.

How to notice it

  1. Go out in the first hour after sunrise. The whistle is concentrated at dawn, so a midday walk gets the wrong half of the bird.
  2. Listen for two clear whistled notes with the second one lower. People write it as cheese-burger, or hey, swee-tie.
  3. Count for five minutes: how many whistles, how many chickadee-dee-dees. Do the same count two weeks later and compare.
  4. From March on, do not let an eastern phoebe fool you. Its two-note phrase is rough and buzzy where the chickadee's is a clean whistle. Phoebes are not here in January or February, so the confusion only starts once they arrive.

Try this with kids: Whistle it back at them, one high note then a lower one, then stand still and see if a chickadee answers.

a song is a bird's repeated phrase for mating and territory, as opposed to a call, which is a short everyday note

Sources

  • massaudubon.orgMass Audubon, the only Massachusetts-specific timing source used: in LATE WINTER male black-capped chickadees, and sometimes females, begin the short two-note song, the second note lower in pitch, and it becomes more frequent as spring approaches and birds pair off. Also that island birds TEND TO sing the two notes at matching pitch.
  • allaboutbirds.orgCornell: the song is a pure two or three note whistled fee-bee; females also sing occasionally; the song differs on Martha's Vineyard. Its 'males begin singing in mid-January' is explicitly qualified as 'in much of the range', so it is carried here as a range-wide figure and not as a Massachusetts date.
  • massaudubon.orgMass Audubon: the chickadee-dee-dee-dee call is given in all seasons. This is what refutes the original candidate premise that the bird switches from one sound to the other.
  • europepmc.orgAvey, Quince and Sturdy 2008, Behavioural Processes 77(2):149-155, abstract only: fee-bee song production increased in winter and occurred almost exclusively at dawn, while the chick-a-dee call was highest in autumn and winter and generally at midday. The study birds were Alberta chickadees, so this is carried as a species-level daily pattern, not as a Massachusetts measurement.
  • audubon.orgAudubon: a buzzy chick-a-dee-dee-dee or a clear whistled fee-bee, the second note lower and often doubled; a permanent resident of open woods, forest edge and suburbs.
  • massaudubon.orgMass Audubon: the chickadee's whistled song is similar to the eastern phoebe's, which is the basis for the misidentification warning.

Checked against these sources on September 4, 2026.

In the guide for January, February, March

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