My Chocolate Stash and the Chickadee Cache

I stash chocolate. Anybody else? My habit began years ago in an effort to save sweetness in a famished family of five. Admittedly, I still hoard chocolate despite the fact I now live alone and every morsel is mine. Go figure.

Certain birds also stash food. Most of the fall, I have watched Mountain Chickadees at the feeder repeatedly carry bits of goodness up into the Juniper and tuck it away for later. Chickadees are a food-caching species—as are jays, nuthatches and some woodpeckers.

Admittedly, they stash for survival, not for sweet tooth satisfaction. And, unlike me, some species can actually remember where they put the goods.How is this possible? Research shows that the Black-capped Chickadee can grow more brain cells seasonally in effort to aid remembering (READ MORE).

You read that right. With hundreds, if not thousands of seeds stashed, remembering where they put them is no small feat. Seems chickadees can enlarge their brains. Specifically the region of the brain responsible for spatial memory--the hippocampus, sports new cells in the fall and this region of the brain increases in size by 30 percent (LEARN MORE). That’s incredible.

Geeze, look at the time! I’ve got to get to work. Can’t wait to see you and discuss more bird wonder. Now where’d I leave those car keys? Hey, Santa, all I want for Christmas is an enlarged hippocampus…

Have a Bluebird Day!

Carol