Cropped , sharpened.

I went undercover ( literally under a green blanket carrying my camera ) and slowly opened my back door, bent over and crouch walked down the porch stairs to position myself nearer to the active birds at my feeder stations. This morning I had refilled two suet feeders, the big seed feeder and painted peanut butter along several branches of the honey locust tree in hopes of a few birds returning by the afternoon.

When the feeders are empty, the birds leave and feed elsewhere. Recently some critter other than a bird chewed through the suet bag and took a tennis ball sized chunk of suet leaving only the net bag with a large hole. Today I repositioned it farther away from the tree trunk to perhaps discourage a less ambitious freeloader.

Today there were House Finches, English Sparrows and a Black-Capped Chickadee. These little guys flit about quickly; grabbing a seed in their beak and flying up into the tree limbs to grasp the seed with their talons against the tree branch to peck it into smaller pieces. So to get a good photo one has to be quick on the focuse,shutter button and aiming in their general direction when they arrive. And Voila! I captured this little guy or girl.

Chickadees are monomorphic, meaning both sexes look very similar in their plumage like Blue Jays, Bald Eagles, Morning Doves and other bird species. Size and behavior can help determine between the boys and girls. I'm going with one or the other.