Sitta canadensis: Red-Breasted Nuthatch

Red-Breasted Nuthatches (along with their cousins, the Pygmy Nuthatches) are some of my favorite birds in this region. I tend to see them in the fall and spring, with the chickadees and woodpeckers, which leads me to believe that they may summer in the mountains and come to the basin for winter.

They're gregarious and social, and right now they're major players in the festival of songbirds in the parks.


What I love about them is that if you hear that they're close, you can stop for a few moments to get a look, and almost invariably, one scout will come down from the branches to see who you are and what you're up to. I don't know if the scout is the one who picks the short end of the straw or if it's the most outgoing bird of the group, one that might actually be interested in figuring out what's going on.

Either way it's kind of cool.

Doodled from this photo.