What's blueish-gray in colour, the size of a Pine Siskin, and enjoys spending lots of time upside down? These unique little birds are a frequent visitor to most backyards, often following chickadees to feed from feeders.
The Red-breasted Nuthatch!
There are three species of nuthatches in British Columbia. The Red-breasted is the most common, and the White-breasted frequents the Okanagan along with the smallest nuthatch; the Pygmy. In Nanaimo, we've had the odd White-breasted sighting. Once near Bowen Park, and another time in the Stephenson Point area.
In comparison to woodpeckers, who travel up tree trunks looking for insect larvae and eggs, nuthatches start at the top and work their way down. Their upside down habit persists even at backyard feeders. Nuthatches feed sideways or upside down on suet cages, and will take seeds from seed feeders to wedge into a tree trunk so they can turn upside down and crack the shell open for the seed.
When it comes to identifying the nuthatch, they have many unique features that can be used to describe them. They are sometimes described as the "bird with no tail" as they have very short tails, or as a "little bird with no neck" due to their compact shape. The Red-breasted Nuthatch can be easily identified from it's call, a nasal yak yak yak sound that can be heard as they move through the trees. This bird is about 4 1/2" in size, with an 8" wingspan. They have a blueish-gray back and wings with a rufous (rusty) coloured underside and chest. The head has been described as both black with a white cheek stripe and white eyebrow, and white with a black cap and black eye stripe. Their slender, pointed bill is similar to that of a chickadee, and is designed to dig for insect eggs and larvae as well as get seeds out of cones. Their bill is not made to crush seeds like finches do, so when they feed on sunflower seeds they take one at a time to wedge into tree bark, and peck it open for their reward before returning for another seed.
Like chickadees and Steller's Jays (and squirrels), nuthatches cache seeds, hiding them around as an emergency food source. Ideally, they would never need to touch these stores of seeds. If you ever have sunflowers growing out of a crack or other strange places, you may have had a bird caching seed there over winter.
To attract Red-breasted Nuthatches to your yard you can provide them with their preferred food sources such as sunflower seeds, peanut halves or other nuts, and suet. Nuthatches will use open tray feeders, tube style feeders, and hopper feeders. They are also able to access suet in anything from an onion sack to an upside down suet feeder.
When nesting, nuthatches use cavities and build their nests inside. Like chickadees, wrens, swallows, and house sparrows, nuthatches will use nest boxes. The nest box should have a hole size of 1 1/8", just big enough for them but too small for House Sparrows to reduce the risk of the nuthatches being forced out. The nest box is ideally placed near Fir and Cedar trees as these trees are their usual habitat, and the entrance hole should face away from weather as much as possible. Make sure when placing the box not to bury it deep in branches. When looking for cavities to nest in, these little birds are searching for that dark hole, which can be difficult to find when the box is too deep in cover.
The Red-breasted Nuthatch is a bold little bird with unique habits that make it easily identifiable. They are brave enough to sometimes take seeds right from your hand, and are a joy to watch flit about with the chickadees.
Happy Birding!
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