Chickadee in winter

I’m rather fond of chickadees; they’re as close as you get to things like Blue Tits (Cyanistes caeruleus for any North Americans who haven’t heard the word used in an avian context!) in Canada and are thoroughly charming little things. A highlight of a winter walk in some of the woods around here is getting them to feed from your hand.

Whilst doing the categories for this post, I had to resist a pedantic cladistic urge to tick ‘reptiles’ too – after all, birds *are* dinosaurs – even inoffensive little chaps like this!