Black-capped Chickadee Cheeseburger / Fee Bee Song Explained | What Does it Mean? #Video

The Feebee Song. Also known as, Hey Sweetie or Cheeseburger, this sweet little whistled tune is one that males start singing in mid-January with the frequency of it increasing as winter progresses. In fact, highly favorable times to hear this call, are between February and March.

The Feebee song is really simple to learn, in fact, among other birds, it’s one of the easiest, in this video, I will go over what to listen for. There are many functions to the Cheeseburger song, chickadees use it to signal aggression to other males, defend a territory, attract and arouse females, and maintain social hierarchies.

For each chickadee, this little song is unique and can help them figure out who is who in the neighborhood. Chickadees can tell who is who just by listening to the counter singing exchanges between other males, and more importantly who the dominant one on the block is. This is useful information to have especially for new males with no experience yet.

A surprising thing to learn is it isn’t just males who sing the Fee Bee song, females do as well. This isn’t unique to Black-capped chickadees, females of many species can produce songs as a growing body of research is revealing. It is thought that the role of the female song may be similar to the males, with the added function of coordinating breeding activities. Furthermore, Studies on the reasoning behind why female Black-capped chickadees sing have shown that it may also have a lot to do with helping males recognize their mates.
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