Mountain Chickadee, Rocky Mtn Natl Park (seriously?)

[Eric DeFonso]

Please, let me explain.... :)

On Saturday, I saw and heard a Mountain Chickadee while at the highest point in the tundra field at Rock Cut along Trail Ridge road in RMNP. The elevation there is about 12,300 feet. I was pretty surprised, and I was wondering if anyone who has "Bob&Bob" handy can tell me what they say if anything about the highest elevation recorded for this species in Colorado. This area in particular is quite far in every direction from treeline, and is about as high elevation as you can go in the park without requiring a multi-hour hike.

The habitat up there is of course just open tundra, and it's well above any of the spruce-fir forest or even the krummholz (vertically by several hundred to 1000 ft, I think). The bird didn't hang out long, but it seemed well out of place. Has anyone else had Mountain Chickadee that high up and that far away from its usual habitat?

Thanks for humoring me,

Eric DeFonso

Fort Collins

[Ron Wolf]

A couple of years ago, I managed to photograph this one at about 13,500 ft. on the tundra on Mt. Evans, easily 2000 ft. above timberline:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rwolf/5334104977/

I was as surprised as you to encounter a chickadee up there. It was a day of strong winds and I figured the out-of-place bird was probably a migrant that had been knocked down by the conditions or was merely waiting on the ground among the rocks until the weather improved.


-- Ron Wolf
Palo Alto CA

[Eric DeFonso]

Thank you to everyone who responded, publicly and privately. I love how even an observation of a common bird - and so many years into my birding life - still teaches me things I didn't know before.

Eric DeFonso

Fort Collins