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Home > White-Breasted Nuthatch
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White-Breasted Nuthatch
Description: White-Breasted Nuthatch, common to deciduous forests and wooded suburbs hops headfirst down the trunks of trees in search of insect food. It is a frequent visitor to bird feeders and takes sunflower seeds off to a tree, wedges them into a crevice and hammers them open with its bill. Its range resides in southern Canada southward to northern Florida and southern Mexico. While its appearance resembles a Chickadee’s, the White-Breasted Nuthatch has a shorter tail and a longer bill.
The White-breasted Nuthatch often travels with small flocks mixed with titmice, downy woodpeckers and chickadees in winter. Participants in these flocks probably benefit through predator avoidance.
Other Names: Upside Down Bird, White-Breasted Nuthatcher
Color: The White-Breasted Nuthatch is about 5 inches long with a long straight gray bill, a black crown and nape, a white face and underparts with bluish-gray above, white on its upper parts and rusty undertail coverts. While the female is duller, the sexes look similar. The White-Breasted Nuthatch has a short tail with black outer tail feathers and a white band. Its eyes are black and its feet are gray.
Sound: The White-Breasted Nuthatch’s song is a series of soft, slightly nasal “what, what, what” notes. Its call is a soft “yank.” Listen to it now:
Preferred Environment: The White-Breasted Nuthatch prefers mature deciduous forests and woods, especially near the openings and edges but is equally at home in parks and suburbs where there are large trees.
Nesting Habits: The White-Breasted Nuthatch builds its nest in tree cavities, sometimes nesting in holes in trees made by other birds or in nesting boxes birders put out for them. It lines the nest with fur, fine grass and shredded bark. The White-breasted Nuthatch is monogamous and pairs up form following a courtship in which the male bows to the female, spreads his tail and droops his wings while swaying back and forth; he then feeds her bits of food. The breeding pair may smear insects around the entrance as a deterrent to squirrels.
Food Preference: The White-Breasted Nuthatch feeds on sunflower, safflower, corn and suet.
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How to Attract the White-Breasted Nuthatch
The White-breasted Nuthatch forages along tree trunks and branches in a similar way to woodpeckers, but doesn’t use its tail for support, instead it progresses in jerky hops relying on its strong legs and feet. All nuthatches are distinctive when seeking food because they descend tree trunks head-first and can hang upside-down beneath twigs and branches.
The White-breasted Nuthatch feeds on insects and conifer seeds. They store nuts in cracks of barks so they can eat it at a later time and survive shortages in mid-winter. Nuthatches are social but very competitive at feeding trays and platform feeders. Fill your feeders with peanuts, sunflower seeds and suet. It’s worthwhile to attach suet feeders directly to your hopper feeders and to use simple peanut feeders
Suggested White-Breasted Nuthatch Feeders
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