Nuthatch

The nuthatch has the unique ability to climb both up and down a tree trunk.

Appearance

A heavily set bird with a relatively large head and a long, straight chisel-shaped beak and a short tail.

Similar bird

The only bird that can climb head first down a tree. The woodpeckers are black and white.

Sounds and song

Its call is piercing, and the song is usually heard in the spring; fast and repetitively or deep.

Song

Warning sound

Food and bird tables

Common guest at the bird table.
Will eat insects, pupae, larvae and spiders, and seeds and nuts in the winter.

The nest and hollows

It is the female alone who builds the nest from flakes of pine bark placed on a bed of wooden chips. While she broods she is fed by the male. The nuthatches (even the young birds) are rather stationary – as far as is known, the old birds never leave their territories and the young birds never travel far from their birth place.

Distribution

Summer  Resident  Winter

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