White-breasted Nuthatch
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Cold weather has returned, and yesterday morning was drizzly and gray when I stepped out on the deck. From a dark stand of pines just inside the woods, a White-breasted Nuthatch called ahnk! It’s not a very glamorous sound, but it’s one I don’t hear often around here, and the bird making it is a cool, graceful little bird with a black crown and half-collar, blue-gray back, snow-white throat and breast, and a long, sharp bill, and to see one is a little like seeing a celebrity for me.
Although sociable, pine-loving Brown-headed Nuthatches are regular visitors to our feeders and the woods around the neighborhood, the more aloof White-breasted Nuthatches are not, probably because they prefer mature deciduous woodland and mixed forest, while our woods are younger and rougher, with few large, dignified trees, either pines or hardwoods. Every once in a while though, like today, one or two come around.
I tried for several minutes to find the White-breasted Nuthatch, but the light was gray and blurry. It gave its one-syllable ahnk call several more times, but remained invisible somewhere among the misty pine branches and foliage, a little too far away to see.
