< Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) >
- It is also known as Parus atricapillus. Poecile is the genus name of bird which is often included into the genus Parus. But the American Ornithologists’ Union has considered Poecile as a distinct genus that expresses the relationship between these two bird’s genera. Therefore, Black-capped Chickadee is now widely called Poecile atricapillus.
< Ecological explanation for the pattern of distribution
Black-capped Chickadee, Poecile atricapillus, is widely distributed from the northern half of North America to about latitude 40°. Their population is densest in eastern regions, in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, northern Virginia, and northern Illinois. Black-capped Chickadee’s population density is also higher in British Columbia, in Canada, northern Washington and Idaho than other areas. Most of the Black-capped Chickadee’s range coincides with the location of high mountains of North America. In Eastern America where the black-capped chickadee is most abundant, there is the second highest mountain in North America, Appalachian Mountains, and Rocky Mountains stretch from northernmost British Columbia, in Canada, to New Mexico, in the United States. Since high mountains’ climate is similar to the boreal region, this distribution of Poecile atricapillus suggests that black-capped chickadee lives throughout the cold area like boreal forest and high mountain forest of North America. Because this distribution map is based on summer,