For several years, Brown-headed Nuthatches have come to our hummingbird feeder now and then \u2013 not for the nectar, but to drink water from the very small moat in the middle of the feeder, which is meant to discourage insects. Two birdbaths also stand nearby, but the little nuthatches seem to prefer this tiny pool of water \u2013 and they are very sweet to watch as they come to drink, taking turns to cling upside down to the thin post that holds the feeder, craning their necks to look up and around, and sipping several times, before flying away again. Sometimes one will come alone, but more often two together, chattering squeaky notes to each other, and sometimes quieter, more intimate little calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The past three or four weeks, the nuthatches have been coming much more often than usual, just about every day and several times a day. When they first began to come more often, a few late hummingbirds were still coming, too, though now they all seem to be gone. It may be that the nuthatches are coming more often because our weather has been so hot and so dry, so other sources of water are not available. So we\u2019ve kept the feeder up and the little water moat filled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A bird of southern pine forests that lives year-round only in the southeastern U.S., a Brown-headed Nuthatch is a tiny bundle of energy, compact, active, and social, usually moving in groups of two or more that keep up a lively chatter of squeaky calls as they move through the pines searching for insects, spiders, pine nuts and other food. They forage among the clusters of pine needles, along branches and on the trunks of pines, where they sometimes use a chip of bark to pry up more pine bark and find insect prey \u2013 one of the few known examples of tool use among birds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Brown-headed Nuthatch\u2019s sleek brown cap, blue-gray back, white throat, and long, sharp bill reflect its lively personality. Its tail is short and rather square on the end, and its legs are short, adding to its compact shape. One distinctive and endearing mark that I love is a small, pale, whitish spot on the nape of the neck, which doesn\u2019t often show up in photos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We feel very lucky to have Brown-headed Nuthatches around our home and neighborhood in the patchy, mixed woods of hardwoods and pines, in a very suburban setting \u2013 but this habitat is far from ideal for the species. Mature southern pine forests are their natural and preferred habitat, and commercial logging, clearing and widespread development have greatly reduced the extent and health of these forests. These kinds of changes are continuing, leaving Brown-headed Nuthatches with fewer and fewer places with the food, nesting places and other things they need to survive. So \u2013 although they are not considered endangered – there is serious concern about the future of these little southern birds.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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For several years, Brown-headed Nuthatches have come to our hummingbird feeder now and then \u2013 not for the nectar, but to drink water from the very small moat in the middle of the feeder, which is meant to discourage insects. Two birdbaths also stand nearby, but the little nuthatches seem to prefer this tiny pool […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2593,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592\/revisions\/2593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}