Poecile rufescens
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The chestnut-backed chickadee (Poecile rufescens) is a small passerine bird in the tit family, native to western North America. In the early 20th century, Joseph Grinnell hypothesized that the chestnut-backed chickadee diverged from the boreal chickadee (Poecile hudsonicus), because both species inhabited similar coniferous forest environments. Grinnell noted that the main differences between the boreal chickadee and the chestnut-backed were in the shade and tone of their respective brown coloration. He drew parallels between the varied chickadee characteristics using the fact that some bird species become smaller and more vibrantly brown as their habitat becomes more humid. Modern molecular phylogenetic studies have confirmed that the chestnut-backed chickadee is sister to the boreal chickadee since there were strong genetic similarities in mitochondrial DNA. More recent research regarding the population distribution of the chestnut-backed chickadee suggests that the genetic fragmentation of the chestnut-backed chickadee from the boreal chickadee was due to the changing glacial landscapes of the Pleistocene era. After this species divergence, the chestnut-backed chickadee... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Olympic National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Redwood National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | Pacific Rim National Park Reserve | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Glacier National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Yosemite National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Kenai Fjords National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Seattle | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Portland | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut-backed Chickadee sighting in Glacier National Park on a given day, based on 272 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 87th most-seen of the 174 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut-backed Chickadee in Glacier National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April and June–July, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Chestnut-backed Chickadee sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 7
Of the 7 parks where we can rate Chestnut-backed Chickadee sightings, Glacier National Park ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Olympic National Park (United States, about 60%), Redwood National Park (United States, about 50%) and Great Bear Rainforest (Canada, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Poecile
The closest relatives of the Chestnut-backed Chickadee that you can see in Glacier National Park (genus Poecile, Chickadees and Allies) are Mountain Chickadee (about 40%), Black-capped Chickadee (about 30%) and Boreal Chickadee (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Chestnut-backed Chickadee is recorded against all the birds logged in Glacier National Park (272 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
