Nuthatches
Upside-down, busy little birdies and their littler cousins
The temperature on an October morning hovered right around 10°F. As the sun rose, the tops of the snags were filled with pips and peeps, bips, beeps, cheeps, kis, and kips. White bellies flashed in the sunshine. The Nuthatches, White-breasted (Sitta carolinensis) and Pygmy (Sitta pygmaea), had gathered tightly in a tree cavity to share warmth over the cold night. With the sun, they broke out of the family bundle from the tree and sang to the morning’s warmth. (Sound on for the video!)
Nuthatches are such small birds, 3.5-4.5 inches long, that many can squeeze in a small space to keep warm together. Cavities with over 150 little birds have been found piled together in tiers, triangles, and square formations. It’s a good thing they are very light, as it would be tough to be the ones on the bottom! These group-roosts create a combined survival strategy for the whole of their kind, making them a species of ‘least concern’ as far as their conservation considerations go.
What unique little guys they are. Here in the Foothills, we have the White-Breasted Nuthatch and the Pygmy Nuthatch. On our property, the pygmies out-number their cousins. They can be found hanging out with the crowd at our feeders, along with the chickadees, juncos, jays, and woodpeckers.
One of their notable traits is hopping upside-down on the trees. They hop with three-toes forward, and one-toe claw in the back, the hallux, acting as their anchor device to hang on. (This toe formation is called anisodactyl.) Biologists surmise that this angle provides the added viewpoint of being able to see down the bark as well as upwards, so they can excavate more bugs from the crevices, as well as store (and retrieve) more food caching sites.
Grand Canyon National Park has a great video of a Pygmy Nuthatch’s movement. https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm?id=0D5E9B85-29A1-44FC-A01A-3666F54F4D51
‘Nuthatch’ comes from their using creviced tree bark as a tool to hold seeds and acorns wedged in place while they hack (hatch) at the shell to break them open. While not quite built as hard-headed as a woodpecker, they can still excavate wood cavities to make nests. They will often reuse existing tree cavities from woodpeckers and can make their own cutouts as well. Our first Spring here, a Nuthatch couple drilled right into the old siding on the house and nested in the wall before we had the siding replaced. (We did make sure they were done with the nest before removing it.) Nuthatches are also known to line their nest entrance hole with sap and then stick animal fur and other bits around the edges to hide their entry point, both visually and by smell. Their ability to dive into their holes without getting sap on their wings and not crashing into the back of the tree cavity is both a mystery and an amazing adaptation!
When their nest is threatened, both parents spring into action to spread their wings and sway in a cobra-like, hypnotic dance in front of and near the nest hole and facing the predator head on. Their goal is to distract and dissuade the intruder from going after their tiny nestlings. (Their eggs are only 1.5 cm long!) The inside top edge of their wings have black and white spots that can look like predator eyes. It’s surprisingly effective. (The video below was filmed with an iPhone and through the window screen, so the quality isn’t great, but you will see the defensive motion.)
They do have their predators. Squirrels will steal eggs and nestlings, as will jays. The adults make a small meal for Sharp Shinned and Cooper’s hawks, small owls, snakes, pine Martens, and raccoons. They aren’t an easy catch, though, as my limited photography will attest.
While Nuthatches, White and Red Breasted, can be found around the world, and all over North America, the Pygmy Nuthatch, the stubby, fuzzier, smaller cousin, has a much more isolated range.
Like their Abert Squirrel buddies, they are mainly found among Ponderosa Pines and other conifers of the American West. The deeply craggy bark and tall, old-growth trees will harbor the insects they love (beetles, wasps, spiders, caterpillars, etc.), and any insect-eating bird is a benefit to the trees.
Older trees will also be large enough to reuse or create the nest cavities to make their ideal and protected homes. Forests with snags (dead trees still standing) provide important ‘apartments’ for their nesting. Logging and forest regrowth over the past 150 years has affected their populations and locations. So, while being ‘of the least concern’, they are affected when habitat loss occurs. Flock sizes and movement are difficult to track, so solid data is not currently available. Once they find suitable forest, though, they tend to remain as year-round residents, not migrating with the seasons. They seem quite content to remain here in Bailey.
Pausing to stare up into a Ponderosa Pine often shows a great deal of little bird activity, many having white bellies. Look for the little guys, bouncing upside down, and you’ll have the Nuthatches. See if you can distinguish them now from the chickadees, juncos, fly catchers, bushtits, wrens, and other little birdies!
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📷 All photos are credit: The Abert Essays, unless otherwise noted.
Sources:
- The Sibley Guide to Birds, Second Edition, David Allen Sibley, 2014
- What it’s Like to be a Bird, David Allen Sibley, 2020
- https://northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/nuthatches-the-upside-down-birds
- https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/white-breasted-nuthatch
- https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Sitta_pygmaea/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmy_nuthatch
- https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-breasted_Nuthatch/overview
- https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pygmy_Nuthatch/maps-range
I love the dear little birds... Nuthatches and wrens are so delightful.
We have at least four here in southern Colorado. Lovely little sprites!