Species Specifics: White-breasted Nuthatch
If you notice a bird jerking and zig-zagging headfirst down the trunk of a tree, you’ve spotted a White-breasted Nuthatch. White-breasted Nuthatches are permanent residents of the deciduous and mixed woods of our area. They are about 6” long with dark crowns and napes, white faces, and blue-gray backs. The male’s crown and nape are jet black; the female’s dark gray.
Nuthatches eat nuts, acorns and insects; they’ll visit your birdfeeding station for sunflower seed, peanuts and suet. The nuthatches in my backyard love safflower seeds, too, often choosing them over sunflower seeds! Nuthatches store food in bark crevices which they easily find later when moving headfirst down the tree. Their cache is often overlooked by birds that scoot up the tree like woodpeckers and creepers.
Nuthatch pairs stay together throughout the year but remain quite independent until late January when their courtship begins–much earlier than most of our backyard birds. At this time it is not unusual to see a pair of nuthatches feeding together; you’ll hear them call to each other in loud, nasal ank-anks or soft ip-ips. I’ve even observed a pair of nuthatches in my backyard examining a nest hole together in late winter. Later on, during courtship, the male will take a seed to his mate and feed it to her: mate feeding is behavior that is thought to cement the pair bond.
Nuthatches nest in existing tree cavities or man-made nesting boxes 5-50’ off the ground. Their nests are made of grass, bark, rootlets and fur. The male feeds the female as she incubates 5-10 brown-spotted white eggs for about 12 days. As the female broods the nestlings, the male will feed both her and the babies. The young leave the nest after 14 days; the fledglings continue to be cared for by their parents for another two weeks.
The next time you’re in your backyard and hear a nasal ank-ank, look for the White-breasted Nuthatch zig-zagging down a nearby tree trunk.