Introduction

The Red-breasted nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) is a wonderfully acrobatic, small forest passerine. It climbs up tree trunks like creepers and woodpeckers, but is easily distinguished from its other tree dwelling counterparts by the unique ability to climb downwards too (Sibley et al. 2001). It is noisy, yet charming, and its nasal “heenk heenk heenk” call, which seems to be near incessant, is an unmistakable part of the sounds of the North American forest.

Visual Identification

Roughly house sparrow sized with a short tail and blue-grey upper parts, the male and female differ only slightly in the colour of the breast and belly area, which is a more pale orange in the female (Sibley 2012). The broad black eye stripe extends almost to the nape and the bill is small, sharp and appears to be slightly upturned. The hind toe is strongly curved, undoubtedly to facilitate down-climbing.

Range

A wide ranging bird that breeds from southern Alaska eastwards right across Canada in forested areas. In eastern North America it is found from Newfoundland southwards through the Appalachians as far as Tennessee, and in western North America, from Alaska to southern California. In BC, although locally a fairly common and sometimes year-round resident in the Georgia depression, it is rare on the west coast of Vancouver Island and the north coast of the mainland, although migrants and summer visitants do occur there. Northern and boreal populations are also uncommon migrants and summer visitants, but winter populations at these latitudes are very rare (Campbell et al. 1997). The Red-breasted nuthatch is also noted for its en-masse migrations, known as irruptions. These occur when there is a particularly harsh winter or and/or food becomes very scarce. This has resulted in large numbers of birds being sighted in places such as southern Texas, where they are usually rare (Sibley 2012; Ghalambor et al. 1999). Very occasionally, the Red-breasted nuthatch is sighted even further afield, as in the case of the bird which was observed to successfully over-winter in East Anglia, UK (Dye et al 2009).

Habitat

The Red-breasted Nuthatch prefers mature coniferous forests where it forages on tree trunks for invertebrates and in the canopy for seeds and nuts. As a specialist in fir and spruce, it will share mixed forest with its close relative, the White-breasted Nuthatch, which prefers deciduous trees (Sibley et al. 2001).

Behaviour

The “hatch” part of the name nuthatch is probably derived from “hack”. This is attributed to the nuthatches tendency to jam seeds in crevices where it hacks them open with its bill (Sibley 2001). The unique ability of the nuthatch to climb downwards also allows it to detect insects and other invertebrates in upwards facing bark fissures that would be unavailable to competitors such as woodpeckers and creepers.

One of the only passerines to excavate its own cavity for nesting (other cavity nesters usually make use of existing structures), the Red-breasted Nuthatch also increases security for its young by smearing sap around the entrance hole to deter predators (Sibley et al. 2001).

Conservation Status

A very large range and an apparently increasing population mean that this bird is designated least concern in terms of the IUCN red-list criteria (Birdlife International 2012).