Adirondack Park Nature Magazine

Despite its tiny brain, the Black-capped Chickadee can remember thousands of places it has stored seeds and other small pieces of food. According to Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology, the bird’s brain adapts for this type of new information every year. The Chickadee swaps out certain brain neurons with old information for new neurons in the autumn. This must have helped the oldest known wild chickadee survive to over twelve years old! Tom and Jackie Kalinowski head out into the Adirondack woods to see what their neighbor Chickadees are up to in the thirteenth episode of Nature in the Adirondacks: