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November High Desert Bird of the Month:  Nuthatch

The White-breasted Nuthatch is a large nuthatch with blue-gray upperparts, a black crown and nape and white face and underparts.  Its tail is dark with white corners. Legs and feet are black. Female is grayer. It clings to trees, often upside down. 

The Red-breasted Nuthatch is a medium-sized nuthatch with blue-gray upperparts and pale rust-brown underparts. Head has black cap, white eyebrow and a black eyestripe; throat is white. Bill is slightly upturned. Female and juvenile have duller heads and paler underparts.

The Pygmy Nuthatch is a small nuthatch, with blue-gray upperparts and pale yellow breast. Its head has a dark gray-brown cap, pale spot on nape and thick black eye-line; throat is white. Legs and feet are gray.  Sexes are similar.

Both White-breasted and Red-breasted Nuthatches eat spiders, insects, nuts and seeds. Pygmy Nuthatches eat caterpillars, moths, other insects and conifer seeds. All forage by climbing up and down trunks and branches, often turning upside down and sideways.

In winter, all three species will eat sunflower seeds and suet from suet cages, hopper feeders and Bark Butter logs.

Fun Facts

• White-breasted Nuthatches gather nuts and seeds, jam them into tree bark, and hammer or "hatch" the food open with their bills.

• The name Nuthatch probably results from the corruption of the word "nuthack" which refers to its habit of hacking away at a seed with its beak until the seed opens.

• White-breasted Nuthatches will often store seeds for retrieval later in the same day or as a quick source of food for the next morning.

• The White-breasted Nuthatch is a common bird of the deciduous forests and wooded urban areas.  Known as the "upside down" bird, it is often observed creeping headfirst down tree trunks while searching cracks and crevices for insect food.

• A nuthatch's foot has one big toe (the hallux) that faces backward, while its other three toes face forward. It is able to walk head first down the trunks of trees by moving only one foot at a time while the hallux toe on the other foot holds firmly to the bark.

• Nuthatches are monogamous and defend a territory throughout the year.  The female White-breasted Nuthatch rarely strays far from her mate and stays in constant vocal contact when they are more than a few yards apart.

• The Red-breasted nuthatch is a very aggressive defender of its nesting cavity, especially during the building period.  It chases away much larger birds such as the Downy Woodpecker and has been observed bullying the very aggressive House Wren.

• Pygmy Nuthatches have never been observed to roost alone.  They will always roost at night in a communal group which may contain up to 100 birds.  This tightly packed mass of birds can warm the roosting cavity by 40 degrees or more over the outside temperature.

• A Pygmy Nuthatch's diet switches from eating mostly insects and spiders in the summer to primarily eating seeds in the winter.  It visits feeders where its favorite foods are sunflower seeds and suet.

• Pygmy Nuthatches can stay in their roost cavity for as long as 40 hours without feeding, enabling them to survive short periods of very severe winter weather.

• While the Red-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatches are mostly found in pines, the White-breasted Nuthatch prefers deciduous trees.

• White-breasted Nuthatches often travel with small mixed flocks in winter.  One explanation for these flocks is that that birds gain protection from predators by the vigilance of the other birds

• A group of nuthatches is collectively known as a "jar" of nuthatches.

• Red-breasted Nuthatches apply sticky conifer resin to the entrance of its nest hole.  The male puts the resin on the outside of the hole while the female puts it around the inside.  It may help to keep out predators or competitors

• Red-breasted Nuthatches hoard excess food by wedging nuts into bark and then hammering them in with its bill.

• The Pygmy Nuthatch is one only two nuthatch species in the world known to have helpers at the nest.  Offspring from previous years help their parents raise young.

• The White-breasted Nuthatch is a common bird of the deciduous forests and wooded urban areas.  Known as the "upside down" bird, it is often observed creeping headfirst down tree trunks while searching cracks and crevices for insect food.

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