Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Acrobatic Red-Breasted Nuthatch

By: Tom Berg

The little red-breasted nuthatch takes an interesting view of its world. (Photo: Tom Berg)

Some of the fastest and most acrobatic little birds around are the nuthatches.  One of those species is the small but feisty Red-Breasted Nuthatch. These tiny, bluish-gray birds have a very distinctive face with a black cap, black eye stripe and a bright white eyebrow stripe. As the name says, they also have reddish (or rusty orange) breast feathers.

Red-breasted nuthatches are often described as acrobatic because they hop up and down tree trunks and branches, either forwards or backwards, with the greatest of ease.  Hanging upside down seems second nature to them, and they are perfectly happy to hang upside down on a pine cone or dried sunflower head to pick away at the tasty seeds hidden there. They almost never sit still.

Besides eating seeds like pine nuts and sunflower seeds, red-breasted nuthatches also eat a wide variety of insects they find in the nooks and crannies under tree bark.  Ants, moths, beetles and spiders are just a few of the bugs they consume.  Their long, sharp beak makes it easy for them to dig out any insects hiding in the dark crevices of the tree bark.

Birdwatchers can attract these energetic little birds to back yard bird feeders by offering black oil sunflower seeds, seed-laden suet and peanuts. The nuthatches eagerly eat these foods, and they even hide some of the seeds in secret caches for later in the winter when food is harder to find.

One interesting fact about the red-breasted nuthatch is they excavate their nest cavity in a tree trunk – often a dead pine tree. They then collect sticky pine resin and apply it around the entrance to the nest hole to keep predators out of the nest. The really cool thing is they often use small pieces of tree bark as “paint brushes” to apply the sticky pine tar. Not many birds use tools, but red-breasted nuthatches do!

Tom Berg is an award-winning writer and photographer and has been a freelance writer since 1993. He is also the Executive Director of the Hoosier Outdoor Writers organization in Indiana and is a member of several other writers groups.