Brown-headed Nuthatch

Sitta pusilla

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family SITTIDAE

Menu

1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

One of the few birds found almost exclusively in the United States, the Brown-headed Nuthatch is restricted to the pine forests of the southeastern states. A small but declining population is also found in The Bahamas.

Cool Facts

• Tool use in birds is rare, but the Brown-headed Nuthatch will use a piece of bark as a lever to pry up other bark to look for food. It may carry the bark tool from tree to tree, and may use it to cover a seed cache.

• Nests of Brown-headed Nuthatches are regularly attended by extra birds, usually young males. Whether these helpers-at-the-nest are older offspring of the breeding pair is not yet known.

• The Brown-headed Nuthatch may sleep in a tree cavity or in the open on pine branches. The female or the breeding pair roosts in the nest cavity before the eggs are laid and throughout the nestling period.

• The Brown-headed Nuthatch often joins mixed species foraging flocks in winter. In these flocks the nuthatch appears to compete for food with the Pine Warbler, another pine specialist species. The two birds displace each other from the preferred foraging spots, with the nuthatch attacking the warbler just as frequently as the warbler attacks the nuthatch.

Description

• Size: 10-11 cm (4-4 in)
• Wingspan: 16-18 cm (6-7 in)
• Weight: 10 g (0.35 ounces)

• Small nuthatch; climbs headfirst down tree trunks.
• Crown dull brown.
• Underparts whitish.
• Back, nape, wings, and rump blue gray.

• Distinct dirty whitish spot on nape, where brown crown meets blue gray of back.
• Tail and flight feathers on wings dark.
• White spots on outer tail feathers.
• Indistinct dark line through eye, blending with dark cap.
• Eyes, bill, and feet black.

Sex Differences

Sexes alike.

Immature

Immature similar to adult, but duller and with more gray and less brown. White neck spot indistinct or absent.

Similar Species

• Pygmy Nuthatch has gray-brown cap, white at base of central tail feathers, blacker eyestripe, and a less distinct white nape patch. Ranges do not overlap.
• Red-breasted Nuthatch larger, has white eyestripe, black or dark gray crown, and is reddish underneath.

Sound

Calls are high pitched and squeaky, like the squeaks of a rubber duck toy.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Resident in pine forests from eastern Texas and extreme southeastern Oklahoma through the southern coastal states north to Delaware. Also in the Bahamas.

Habitat

Pine forests, especially in open, mature forests with periodic fires.

Food

Insects and pine seeds.

Behavior

Foraging

Forages in pines, throughout the entire tree, but especially in upper third of trees. Gleans from foliage, probes in cracks and open pinecones, pries into crevices. Scales off loose bark, and may use flakes of bark as a tool to pry off bark. Takes seeds and other large food to hammering sites at the base of large limbs to peck seed open.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nests in holes in trees, usually dead trees. Will use nest box. Nest made primarily of pine seed wings, with bark shreds, Spanish moss, grass rootlets, fur, feathers, and other soft material.

Egg Description

White or buffy, with reddish brown spots evenly distributed over egg or concentrated as blotches at large end.

Clutch Size

Usually 3-7 eggs. Range: 3-9.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless and with some down.

Conservation Status

Decreasing throughout range because of habitat degradation. The population on Grand Bahama Island, which is possibly a distinct subspecies, is nearly gone, probably the result of logging. Listed on the Audubon Watchlist.

Other Names

Sitelle à tête brune (French)
Sita del Pinar (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Withgott, J. H., and K. G. Smith. 1998. Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta pusilla). In The Birds of North America, No. 349 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.