Summer is the perfect season to photograph colorful birds.
White-breasted Nuthatches
white-breasted nuthatch © USFWS
Many Massachusetts birds cling and crawl on the trunks of trees, but only the curious little nuthatches descend trees head-first. The name “nuthatch” comes from the way these birds deal with tough seeds. A nuthatch will wedge the seed into a bark crevice or branch crotch and use their chisel-like bill to “hatchet” the “nut” open.
Identification
There are two species of nuthatches in Massachusetts: white-breasted and red-breasted.
At just shy of six inches long, white-breasted nuthatches are the larger of the two and also more commonly seen. They are bluish-gray above, with black caps on their heads. Their faces, breasts, and bellies are white, with rusty coloration around the bird’s vent. Their bills are fairly long and sharply pointed. White-breasted nuthatches give a distinctive nasal yank yank call, which is easy to recognize once heard.
The smaller conifer-loving red-breasted nuthatch is reddish-orange below and has a bright white stripe across the eye. Red-breasted nuthatches are most commonly encountered in western and north-central Massachusetts, though they can be found all the way out to the Islands. Their call is a higher, reedier version of the white-breasted nuthatch’s, often described as sounding like the tooting of a tiny tin horn.
Behavior
In addition to their distinctive habit of descending trees head-first, nuthatches will crawl all over tree trunks and larger branches, looking for food in the crevices.
Nuthatches tend to be more wary. They may hitch around to the opposite side of a tree to avoid a curious observer. And while they will readily visit feeders, nuthatches tend to collect just one seed at time and carrying it off to handle and eat somewhere nearby.
white-breasted nuthatch © USFWS
Many Massachusetts birds cling and crawl on the trunks of trees, but only the curious little nuthatches descend trees head-first. The name “nuthatch” comes from the way these birds deal with tough seeds. A nuthatch will wedge the seed into a bark crevice or branch crotch and use their chisel-like bill to “hatchet” the “nut” open.
Identification
There are two species of nuthatches in Massachusetts: white-breasted and red-breasted.
At just shy of six inches long, white-breasted nuthatches are the larger of the two and also more commonly seen. They are bluish-gray above, with black caps on their heads. Their faces, breasts, and bellies are white, with rusty coloration around the bird’s vent. Their bills are fairly long and sharply pointed. White-breasted nuthatches give a distinctive nasal yank yank call, which is easy to recognize once heard.
The smaller conifer-loving red-breasted nuthatch is reddish-orange below and has a bright white stripe across the eye. Red-breasted nuthatches are most commonly encountered in western and north-central Massachusetts, though they can be found all the way out to the Islands. Their call is a higher, reedier version of the white-breasted nuthatch’s, often described as sounding like the tooting of a tiny tin horn.
Behavior
In addition to their distinctive habit of descending trees head-first, nuthatches will crawl all over tree trunks and larger branches, looking for food in the crevices.
Nuthatches tend to be more wary. They may hitch around to the opposite side of a tree to avoid a curious observer. And while they will readily visit feeders, nuthatches tend to collect just one seed at time and carrying it off to handle and eat somewhere nearby.
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05 June 2022
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