Brown-headed Nuthatch

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