Chance brings a nuthatch close to home

SHARON WOOTTON

Originally published June 26, 2001

Nuthatches are working their way up my Top-10 list of favorite birds.

The last move up the ladder came when I was standing on the deck, slowly pouring "city" water out of 2-gallon containers into smaller bottles.

Bathed in sunshine, I was contemplating the Zen of falling water, aware only of the sun's warmth and a few birds twittering and moving through the nearby Douglas fir, willow tree and salal.

Then a flutter of wings off to my right was followed by the lightest touch on my shoulder as a red-breasted nuthatch landed on this human waterfall.

Still trickling the water into the funnel, I slowly turned my head. Hazel eyes met tiny black ones for three seconds before the 4-inch bird flew off to the fir.

I kept pouring. The nuthatch flew to the handle of the wheelbarrow 15 feet away. I poured into another bottle. It flew to the driftwood on the table just a couple of feet away but lasted only a few seconds before seeking safety, conversing with its nasal "nyeep nyeep."

I poured water into a cap and set out a handful of seeds by the driftwood and went inside. Although my nuthatch had lost its nerve or its focus, something later landed to scatter the seeds.

Bird-friendly home

This property is a good home for nuthatches, mixed conifers (pine, cedar, fir and hemlock) of varying ages with plenty of rotting snags, cones and feeding stations packed with sunflower seeds year-round and suet in the winter.

The high fliers can be found in the tops of tall trees or down on low branches. They'll nest in a tree cavity or a birdhouse, smearing pitch around the entrance to discourage predators.

It's an easily identifiable bird with its rusty colored breast, black cap, white eyebrow and dark eye line.

Nuthatches are the only birds to forage for food upside down, giving them a niche to exploit. Insects and larvae live in crevasses of rough bark, and a bird hunting only up-trunk will miss some of the cracks.

Small, unique

Nuthatches, weighing in at about 3 ounces, dance their way through the day, a hop here, a scurry there, around and up and down, a hop and a peck and then it's off to another tree trunk or an upside-down acrobatic performance on a twig or cone.

With one foot under its breast and the other back under the tail, a nuthatch moves down the tree, digging in with hind toes. It has one toe pointed forward and three back, which is the opposite of most birds. Those three back toes provide the grip for going face first.

Looking back at the nuthatch landing, I have to smile. I could have researched their habits and memorized their songs and sat for hours in just the "right" spot and never seen a nuthatch.

Nature is a world of chance as well as niches, and unexpected observations are as enriching and sometimes more delightful than those that occur on schedule.

You just have to accept what nature provides.

Sharon Wootton is a free-lance writer from the San Juan Islands. E-mail questions, suggestions or comments to songandword@rockisland.com.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

back to main Outdoors: Wildlife index