A Brown-headed Nuthatch Pair
This afternoon a pair of Brown-headed Nuthatches stayed around the feeders and in nearby trees for a long time. Most of the time they were quiet, only calling to each other in very soft peeps. They seem to like the same broken stub of a branch in a water oak tree that the Red-breasted Nuthatches like. One sat on it for a long time, tucked up against the trunk, facing the lowering sun. For a good while, it just sat and looked around, then it began preening, stretching out the white patch on the nape of its neck as its head bent over.
A Red-breasted Nuthatch flew into some high branches nearby, and one of the Brown-headed Nuthatches flew toward it and seemed to chase it away. Shortly after that, both of the Brown-headed Nuthatches sat together on the broken stub, side by side, and one preened the other, combing through the feathers on its nape and back with its beak.