Brown-headed Nuthatch

Sitta pusillaOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Nuthatches (Sittidae)

General

Brown-headed Nuthatch: Medium-sized nuthatch with gray upperparts, brown cap, small, white nape patch, dark eye-line, white face, and buff underparts. Wings and tail are gray. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Brown-headed Nuthatch: Resident in much of the southeastern U.S. Preferred habitats include coniferous and mixed forests.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"pri-u, de-u, de-u", "bit-bit-bit", "dee-dee-dee"

Interesting Facts

The Brown-headed Nuthatch is one of only a few bird species in the world known to use tools. By holding a small piece of bark in its bill, they pry open bark on trees to expose insects.

Their population has decreased by 2 percent per year, a 45 percent decline over the last 35 years.

They are one of the few birds found almost exclusively in the United States.

A group of nuthatches are collectively known as a "jar" of nuthatches.

Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Brown-headed Nuthatch

Brown-headed Nuthatch: Medium nuthatch, gray upperparts, brown cap, small, white nape patch, dark eye-line, white face, buff underparts. Wings and tail are gray. Legs and feet are black. Weak fluttering flight of short duration, alternates rapid wing beats with wings drawn to sides.

● Song: "pri-u, de-u, de-u", "bit-bit-bit", "dee-dee-dee"

● Foraging & Feeding: Brown-headed Nuthatch: Eats pine seeds, insects, and spiders. Forages over, around, and up and down branches, small twigs, and trunks, sometimes hanging upside down; caches seeds.

● Breeding & nesting: Brown-headed Nuthatch: Three to nine white eggs with red brown speckles are laid in a cavity nest made of soft bark shreds, wood chips, grass, wool, hair, and feathers, and built from 2 to 12 feet above the ground in a dead or live tree, bird box, stump, or old post. Female incubates eggs for about 14 days.

● Similar species: Brown-headed Nuthatch: White-breasted Nuthatch is larger and has black cap. Red-breasted Nuthatch has black cap and eyestripe and rust-brown underparts.

Flight Pattern

Weak fluttering flight of short duration, with series of rapid wing beats followed by wings pulled in to sides, repeated.

Brown-headed Nuthatch Breeding Male Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: Brown-headed Nuthatch: Resident in much of the southeastern U.S. Preferred habitats include coniferous and mixed forests.

^BreedingMonogamous, Cooperative

^PopulationFairly common

^MigrationNonmigratory

^Weight0.4 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America