Joann Merritt's Essays

Bird Of The Month - Whitebreasted Nuthatch
November, 1991

What is so rare as a day in June? How about a cold misty day in November when a White-breasted Nuthatch is found in Midland’s Hill Park? The previous records of this bird were in 1954 and 1963 and both sightings were by a single observer. This nuthatch frequently calls, thus enabling patient Midnats to find him and watch as he performs his acrobatic stunts.

According to maps, the whitebreast is about 180 miles out of his range, however some parts of Midland resemble the forests where he lives and nests. The whitebreasts build their nests in a natural cavity or deserted woodpecker hole, lining it with soft bark shreds, hair and feathers. Many birds that wander here in the winter now have food available from numerous conifer and nut-bearing trees and may stay until spring as the Mountain Chickadee did two years ago

Give the White-breasted Nuthatch a ten in acrobatics. He can travel up, down and around tree trunks and branches. As he travels downward he stops and cocks his head upward at a 90 degree angle. This makes him quite visible as his white cheeks and breast contrast with his black head and gray body. A close look reveals a pale rusty wash on his belly and flanks. Long toes and sharp claws enable nuthatches to cling to bark and to hitch down the tree headfirst. In this manner they can find insects other birds miss as they travel upwards. I observed the nuthatch hang from the bottom of a horizontal limb like a fly on the ceiling with no regard for the law of gravity. The name Tree Mouse aptly describes him. He can accomplish these feats because he doesn’t have to use his short tail feathers to brace himself against the tree as woodpeckers do, but depends entirely on his strong feet.

I’ve watched him consume small insects and big black beetles with orange underwings that he finds hiding in the tree bark. Perhaps he’s dining on fresh food first and saving the non-perishables until later. I hope my observations are correct so I won’t be included with birders who watched nuthatches and are described in Birds of North America thusly: “The term sapsucker was often mistakenly applied to this bird, due of course to careless observers - of which there is always a bountiful supply.” I took sunflower seeds and Miracle Meal to Hill Park hoping the nuthatch would come regularly to a feeding station, but so far no birds have eaten this food. The nuthatches hoard nuts and seeds which they wedge under loose bark to be cracked and eaten when needed.

Gary and Denise Kelley had a flock of these friendly curious nuthatches come to their picnic table for water when they were in the mountains of California near the Nevada border. George Gladden in Birds of North America suggests: “Remain motionless near the base of a tree in which the bird is working and he is almost certain to come hitching down the trunk, gaze squarely into your face with his beady black eyes and inquire politely as to your health, apologize for being so extremely busy and whisk away to the next tree.”

Now, about his voice when he’s supposedly saying these things. Field guides render it “Yank, yank,” but we can each apply our own mnemonics to his call. I haven’t decided what it sounds like to me, but I recognized it when I heard it on November 7th, 1991.