The Carolina chickadee is quite at home in cities and towns, readily using nest boxes and bird feeders. In fall and winter, the Carolina forages in mixed flocks with nuthatches, woodpeckers, warblers, and other woodland species. The only chickadee in the Southeast, the Carolina is smaller and duller than most other chickadee species. Polytypic. Length 4.8".

The cap and bib are black; the cheeks are white, usually tinged at rear with pale gray; the back and rump are gray, sometimes with an olive wash; the greater coverts are gray without pale edgings; the secondaries and tertials are indistinctly edged in dull white or pale gray; the flanks are pale grayish, tinged buffy when fresh in fall.

Four subspecies—largest and palest on upperparts