Creature Feature:

The Red-Breasted Nuthatch

Red-Breasted Nuthatch.mp4

The Red-Breasted Nuthatch

By Steven Grunwald

Say hello to the Red-Breasted Nuthatch! This songbird is a year-round resident on Casper Mountain. Braving the extreme temperatures throughout winter at 8,000 feet in Wyoming is no easy task! Temperatures on top of Casper Mountain can drop as low as -20°F in the winter, but this interesting bird species prefers cold climates as long as there is reliable food, like pinecone seeds.

Did you know that the Red-breasted Nuthatch prefers to climb headfirst down tree trunks?

The Red-breasted Nuthatch is the most common of three native nuthatches in Wyoming. You can always tell the Red-breasted Nuthatch by its rust-colored belly, but all three nuthatches share this unique climbing behavior. They have compact bodies with long beaks and sharp claws to help them hang upside down on branches and move down a tree headfirst with no problem.

The Red-breasted Nuthatch is small, even compared to its close relative the White-breasted Nuthatch. They typically measure about 4 inches from nose to tail and weigh about the same as two nickels (8-13 grams). To identify the Red-breasted Nuthatch, look for the rusty belly and black and white stripes on the head.

Red-Breasted Nuthatch foraging for food.

Moving around in search of food is called "foraging."

The sticky sap around the nest entrance protects the baby Nuthatches inside!

Mid-April is this bird's nesting season, so keep an eye out! Nuthatches are one of the only non-woodpeckers that can make holes in trees. We call birds that live in tree holes "cavity nesters". Red-breasted Nuthatch pairs work together to make their cavities in dead trees, or in dead parts of living trees. They especially like Aspen because the wood is nice and soft.

To protect their nests from intruders, the Red-breasted Nuthatch collects sticky sap from pine trees and carries it back to the nest. The pair works together to apply sap to the inside and outside of the entrance hole. This way, anything that tries to come into the nest will get stuck. This is very important since eggs and baby birds are vulnerable to predators. In order to avoid getting stuck themselves, the nuthatches must dive quickly and precisely through the hole. This is a very unusual habit, but it seems to work well for the Red-breasted Nuthatch!

Why do you think nuthatches creep headfirst down tree trunks and branches?

This clever adaptation allows nuthatches to hunt for insects in bark that other birds may not see. They survive and feed their young by hunting these hidden insects from spring to fall. As they are foraging up and down tree trunks, they also hide seeds under the bark to save for winter when there are no insects to eat. These secret hidden seeds are called the bird's "cache". Can you think of another animal that makes a cache of seeds to save for winter?

Even though Red-breasted Nuthatches are very small, they are able to eat very large seeds. They are known for taking the heaviest food they can find from bird feeders. Since birds do not have teeth to chew food into smaller pieces, they must develop other strategies if they want to eat something they can't swallow whole. The nuthatch's solution is to take these large food items and pinch them under tree bark to hold them still so they can peck them into smaller pieces. The name "nuthatch" comes from this interesting habit. All nuthatches share this behavior and unique relationship to tree bark!

This seed might be small to us, but it's way too big for a Red-Breasted Nuthatch to eat in one bite!

What time of year can we find the Red-Breasted Nuthatch in Casper?

The range map shows where this animal lives throughout an entire year. Can you find where the nuthatch will be in winter?

To answer that question, you will have to look at all the categories that apply for winter months. In this case there are 2 categories on our map that apply: Winter (Blue) and Year-Round (Green). Sometimes this songbird migrates seasonally, and sometimes it is a year-round resident. Can you find Wyoming on the map? You will notice it is a combination of green and blue. Since the nuthatch prefers cold weather, its year-round habitat in Wyoming will mostly be high-elevation areas like Casper Mountain. For more information on migration, check out our Amazing Migration blog post!

This map is our best guess of where Red-breasted Nuthatches can be found throughout the year. However, many things can change from one year to the next, like temperatures, food availability, and snowfall. These factors make it difficult for scientists to be 100% certain where our Red-Breasted Nuthatch will be season to season.

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