Smart Mountain Chickadees in Winter

A mountain chickadee waking up in the Sierra Nevada range on a snowy morning has no time to waste. Weighing about as much as a pencil, it must quickly find the pine nuts it stored earlier or risk freezing in the cold winds and subzero temperatures. These tiny songbirds are experts at remembering where they hid their seeds, sometimes storing over 100,000 of them for winter use.

Behavioral ecologist Ai Ana Richmond and her team from the University of Nevada, Reno study these birds in the wild, often traveling by snowmobile to reach their research site at Sagehen Creek Field Station. Unlike lab studies, this fieldwork allows them to observe animal cognition in natural settings over long periods. Automated technology there tests the memory of up to 250 chickadees each year, helping researchers understand how memory impacts survival and reproduction.

The ability to remember plays a huge role in the birds’ lives. Researchers like UNR behavioral ecologist Katherine Johnson are exploring how memory affects reproductive success and what factors might influence these abilities. Vladimir Pravosudov, another researcher at UNR, began studying mountain chickadees in 1999 after being inspired by similar studies of Arctic songbirds as an undergraduate in Russia.

Known as “a’ni ki” in the Shoshone Indigenous Goshiute language, these birds are remarkable for their ability to locate hidden seeds even in extreme winter conditions. Richmond describes how they dig through deep snow to find single-seed stashes stored in tree crevices, showcasing their incredible memory and survival skills.