White-breasted Nuthatch

Sitta carolinensis · Nuthatches (Sittidae)

1 — At your feeder tomorrow.

Status

Year-round resident in deciduous and mixed woods statewide

Length

5.1–5.5 in

Regions

Coast · Merrimack · Lakes · The Whites · Conn. River

What you notice first

A bird walking head-first *down* a tree trunk — no other New Hampshire bird does this routinely — while giving a nasal, honking "yank-yank."

Voice

A low, nasal "yank" or "wer-wer-wer," repeated; a rapid soft "ip-ip-ip" between a pair working the same trunk.

Where & when

Mature deciduous and mixed forest, wooded neighbourhoods, feeders with suet and sunflower. All year, all counties, though thinner in unbroken spruce up north.

The head-down habit is the whole identification. Woodpeckers and creepers climb up, bracing on stiff tail feathers; nuthatches have no such brace and instead hang from one foot cocked back, which lets them go down a trunk and spot food that the up-climbers walk past.

They wedge seeds into bark crevices and hammer them open — “hatching” the nut — which is where the name comes from. In fall they cache hundreds of them and, like chickadees, remember the sites.

Pairs stay together on territory all year and often travel with the winter chickadee flock. Listen in late winter for the male’s slower, more musical spring song, a soft series of nasal notes he uses only from about February into April.