White-breasted Nuthatch

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White-breasted Nuthatch

Conservation status

Least Concern

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Sittidae
Genus:	Sitta
Species:	S. carolinensis

Binomial name

Sitta carolinensis
Latham, 1790

The White-breasted Nuthatch, Sitta carolinensis, is a small songbird.

The adult birds are about 155 millimeters (6 inches) long. In the adult male the cap and a band on the upper mantle are black. The rest of the upper parts are a pale blue-gray. The wing coverts and flight feathers are blackish with paler fringes. The tertials are often marked with pale gray and black. There is a slight wing bar in the greater coverts. The face and the underparts are white. The White-breasted Nuthatch is the only North American nuthatch in which the white of the face completely surrounds the eye. The outer tail feathers are black with broad diagonal white bands across the outer three feathers. They have short legs with long claws, short wings and a short tail.

Their breeding habitat is deciduous and mixed forests across North America. They nest in a tree cavity, either natural or excavated by a woodpecker.

These birds are permanent residents, sometimes moving south in winter.

They forage on the trunk and large branches of trees, and are well-known for descending head first, a behavior unique to the white-breasted nuthatch. Their principal diet consists of insects and a few varieties of seeds. They often travel with small mixed flocks in winter.

The call is a nasal yeah-yeah-yeah in the east or a fast yididit in the west.

[edit] Interesting White-breasted Nuthatch Facts

Aside from being one of a few birds who can creep down a tree trunk head first to forage for food or hang upside down, swinging from tiny branches, the White-breasted Nuthatch is also known to exhibit a weird behavior known as "bill sweeping" in which it picks up a piece of fur, plant or insect with its bill and uses this to sweep around its nests cavity. Scientists believe it does this to remove its own scent around the nest and prevent detection by predators.

[edit] References

BirdLife International (2004). Sitta carolinensis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 09 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern.
Interesting White-breasted Nuthatch Facts donated by BirdHouses101.com