Chickadee excavating a nest cavity

On a short excursion to the Canon City Riverwalk this morning I found the Black-capped Chickadee in these photos busy excavating a hole in a tree to use as a nest cavity. This bird(while only females in this species build nests both share the job of excavation so can't tell what sex this bird is) worked hard while her mate loafed nearby.

Black-capped Chickadees often nest in snags or rotten branches of trees or holes made by woodpeckers anywhere from ground level to as high was close to 60 feet according to Birds of North America online This hole was fairly low on this tree.

Surveys for the last Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas found evidence of nest building as early as April 20 so this may be an indication of earlier nesting (but it could just also be a pair that is early in their nesting behavior so we will have to wait to see what data comes from the updated Breeding Bird Surveying that is beginning this year in Colorado before coming to any conclusions).

I will post more pics of this on my nest post so this doesn't get too long.
SeEtta