WBU Educational Resources
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The Great
Backyard
Bird Count
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Wild Birds Unlimited. |
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 Click
here for more topics about
backyard birdfeeding and the
wild birds visiting your yard!
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Nifty and nimble nuthatches!
Nuthatches are probably one of the easiest backyard birds to identify. If
you see a bird creeping downward on a tree, it’s a nuthatch. It’s the only
species that can “walk down a tree.” It needs no tail support because it has
incredibly strong feet!
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 That said,
generally you won’t see too many nuthatches in your yard. Most nuthatches
visit feeders in ones and twos. They are feisty and aggressive birds, and
pairs generally defend a territory of 10 to 30 acres. They feast on seeds
and insects found in trees, and many times will hide seeds from feeders in
tree bark for a snack later in the day or breakfast the next morning.
Red-breasted and White-breasted nuthatches are the
most common visitors to feeders in North America. They enjoy suet, sunflower
seeds and peanuts.
Red-breasted Nuthatches are pickier than
White-breasted
Nuthatches, and their diet is made up mainly of conifer seeds. During years
when these seeds aren’t plentiful, Red-breasted Nuthatches will move south
(or irrupt) in search of food.
 Pygmy
Nuthatches live in ponderosa forests in the West and survive the bitter
winter nights by roosting with 50 to 100 or more other Pygmy Nuthatches in
tree cavities. With so many birds in the cavity, they stay warm and can
lower their metabolic rate to conserve energy.
Another species, Brown-headed Nuthatches, live primarily in the
Southeast United States in mature pine forests. These birds live in flocks,
although they do not have the “sleepovers” the Pygmy Nuthatches have.
To attract nuthatches to your yard, try a suet or peanut feeder as well
as a blend high in sunflower.
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