Red Breasted Nuthatch
Sitta canadensis has been busy at the bird feeder underneath the big blue spruce for the past few days. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes the Red-breasted Nuthatch as “an intense bundle of energy” and that description of the bird’s behaviour matches what I have seen.
Red-breasted Nuthatches move quickly over trunks and branches probing for food in crevices and under flakes of bark. They creep up, down, and sideways without regard for which way is up, and they don’t lean against their tail the way woodpeckers do. Flight is short and bouncy.
The Cornell University site also notes that Sitta canadensis is the only North American nuthatch with an eyestripe, and the only one with extensive rusty or cinnamon on the underparts. It has what is described as a “yank-yank” call which sounds like a tiny tin horn (Listen here).
Thus ends today’s ornithology session.
