Is it wrong to whistle at chickadees?
They come around, and that’s very pleasant.
We don’t know if they dislike the deceit or not.
Seems like maybe it keeps things interesting, even for them.
Chickadees seem to like people well enough. They’ll come and check you out as you walk near them and even follow or lead you for a while. I think they know that it’s a human that’s calling them. Even if they don’t, they are probably not suffering for it. I’m not so sure if it’s the lyrical content of those calls that they like. Maybe something with a little more snap would be better.
I think they like it too. I’m not sure whether they’re being deceived or not. I suspect they are, at least for a moment, but I think they like it anyway - just as I like seeing a pretty woman in a short skirt walking down the street. I think the world is a better place when people whistle at chickadees. It sparkles more.
I don’t know about chickadees, but last winter an owl took up refuge in a huge old cedar down the block. Late at night (or real early morning) I would hear his call. I would answer to the best of my ability and we would carry on a conversation until I was freezing and went back in the house. I have no idea what the owl thought of this, but it was comforting to think that we were both pleased that we weren’t alone in the middle of the night.
The major part of my job is to take care of my employer’s Lovebirds. I have learned they do have a language and I have adopted some of it to my own whistles, we carry on quite nicely.They know I am not a lovebird. I even learned the whistle that shuts them up or gets them to talking all at once in concert, plus a few others whistles… Chickadees are related to lovebirds I think, they are about the same size. And highly social like Lovebirds. If you listen carefully to them and watch them you will begin to comprehend their language. They have calls for food, enemies, friends, danger, water, and just plain old hey how are you doing i have not seen you for awhile type whistles. You may even get them to trust you enough to land on you for tidbits of food. Go to a feed store and pick up some suet and wild bird seed.(Walmart or Kmart may carry these too) let them see you taking care of this every day. Let them learn to trust you. If there are enough birds there I can just about guarantee one or two will be brave enough to start coming closer and closer. Yes they each have different personalities, that blew me a way when I discovered that. learning birds and learning to apreciate and love the little birds has changed me for the better, well at least I think so.
I like this thread. I know I’m biased, but stil…
Makes two of us. If felines notice you feeding the little guys, get a water filled squirt gun/bottle, then shoot them. Cats learn quickly enough. They will learn to avoid the feeding area. I have to do this to my employer’s cats every time her husband sets out a new bird feeder for the wild birds. They have a cat colony that I care for too. So I get to go behind him and squirt their cats so that he won’t get upset with them even though he loves them and feeds them too. So far the cats are winning, but then its 40 to one of me. LOL. There is something adorable about a cat hiding in a large open feeder up in a tree awaiting its supper or lying perfectly still in a bird bath. I find it wierd that I sympathize with both critturs.
He might of thought look at that dumb human out in the cold, let’s see how long I can keep him out here. 
I believe though owls are mostly quite solitary creatures. So he/she’s probably used to it.