Stimulus for food-storing in the Black-Capped Chickadee

The black-capped chickadee stores food for later consumption during the fall and winter. Three feeding sites were erected in natural environment of the black-capped chickadee. The amounts of food placed on the first site were varied heavily every observation day. The amount of food at the second site were varied moderately. At the third site the amounts of food remained stable. The sites were observed using a time-sampling procedure. Whenever a chickadee carried a seed away from the site being observed, the response was recorded. The hypothesis was that fluctuations in the amount of food at a feeding site stimulates food storing from that site. It was found that even though there was a difference between the heavy site and the other two it was not found to be a statistically significant difference. There was nearly no difference between the stable and moderate fluctuation site totals.