White-breasted nuthatch
The white-breasted nuthatch has a slate gray back, a white breast and face, and a cap that is black in the male and ashy gray in the female. Nuthatches inhabit deciduous forests throughout Pennsylvania and the East. They climb around in trees, walking in a herky jerky manner up and down and around the trunks, along branches and the undersides of limbs. Both sexes sound a nasal ank ank call. Pairs live in home territories of 20 to 35 acres in wooded habitats with some large trees. A pair may occupy larger territories in semi-wooded habitat.
White-breasted nuthatches feed on insects and spiders in summer and on nuts and seeds in winter. They relish suet at feeding stations and carry away sunflower seeds for caching. Sometimes they forage on the ground. Nuthatches wedge acorns and hickory nuts into tree bark and then hammer the shells off with blows from their awl-like beaks.
During courtship, the male bows to the female, spreading his tail and drooping his wings while swaying back and forth; he also feeds her morsels. Before building the nest, the birds rub or sweep crushed insects back and forth over the inside and outside of the nest cavity. Ornithologists speculate that this sweeping behavior leaves chemical secretions behind that may repel predators or nest competitors. The female builds a nest inside the cavity (commonly a rotted out branch stub or an abandoned squirrel or woodpecker hole) using twigs, bark fibers, grasses and hair. She lays five to nine white, brown spotted eggs and incubates them for 12 to 14 days while her mate brings her food. Both parents feed insects and spiders to the young, which fledge in about 26 days, usually in June.
Red-breasted nuthatch
In Pennsylvania, this species is found mainly in the northern part of the state; it ranges through New England and across Canada. Slightly smaller than the white-breasted nuthatch, the red-breasted has a rusty tinge to its breast and a prominent black eye stripe. The species lives primarily in coniferous forests including pine plantations but may also be found in mixed forests. Red breasted nuthatches feed mainly on insects during summer, feeding their young a diet of flies, spiders, beetles and caterpillars. During fall and winter they rely on seeds, particularly those of conifers. They excavate a nest cavity 5 to 40 feet above the ground, typically in a dead tree or decaying part of a tree. Red-breasted nuthatches nest in native conifer stands, but are opportunistic in their use of ornamental conifers, sometimes nesting in old Christmas tree plantations or other plantings. Five or six young are produced in a single annual brood. In some autumns, large numbers of red-breasted nuthatches show up south of their normal range; biologists believe that poor cone production in northern forests drives these movements. If there are abundant cone crops, they sometimes will stay to nest at locations at lower elevations or otherwise outside their normal nesting grounds.
