Nuthatch (Sitta europaea)
Nuthatch is derived from the Middle English “Nuthak”, which means “nut hacker”, a rather fitting name since the bird displays behaviour of stuffing and cracking nuts in the crevices of tree trunks. Its Latinate term, Sitta europaea, is related historically to the ancient Greek, “sittē”; europaea, of course, means European, separating this species from the many varieties around the world.
Where to spot a Nuthatch? Try Sherwood Forest!
Appearance
Ask anyone what they believe to be the most striking feature of a Nuthatch, and in most cases they’ll answer with the black stripe around its head. This almost sinister-looking stripe wraps around the Nuthatch’s head, covering the eyes and terminating where the pinkish colour of the underbelly begins. Perhaps it would be a step too far to say that this could be the most Zorro-esque bird in existence.
But this contrasts beautifully with the subtle battle-grey plumage of the back, which helps highlight the pinkish orange-red underbelly of the bird. Its bill, a prominent and sturdy affair, has adapted as an ideal tool for stowing away insects and seeds into various cracks and crevices of tree trunks; it can then be used, in dagger-like fashion, to jab away at the stowed-away food.
There is not much difference between male and female varieties; the only real difference being that the female has slightly paler upperparts and a brown stripe around the eyes.
Taxonomy
The Nuthatch is the secret spy of British birds. With an amazing and agile ability to scurry along the trunks of trees with its powerful claws, the Nuthatch is about as competent a climber as any bird can be. In fact, its unique movements upwards, downwards, backwards and sideways is something particular to the Nuthatch, the only British bird able to move around in this way; the classic image of a nuthatch is one in which the bird is in a right-angular position looking backwards from a tree trunk.
You’ll be hard pressed to find a Nuthatch in your garden, unless your property backs on to a woodland area or contains mature, established trees such as oak, their favoured variety.
Habitat & behaviour
Nuthatches are an all-year-round bird, primarily located in England and Wales, with some recent entrance into southern parts of Scotland. Their preferred breeding and living grounds are mature, deciduous and mixed woodland with a favouritism towards woodlands with old oak trees. Nuthatches tend to be incredibly territorial birds and, once established in a particular locale, are unlikely to move far away. They do often display considerable aggression against the same and/or other species in any struggle for territorial rights. The consequence of this consistent territoriality is that Nuthatches are not often observed in everyday gardens.
Since the 1970s, Nuthatches have increased in number and have begun to establish themselves in southern Scotland.
Nuthatches are big fans of insects, hazel nuts, acorns, beechmast and a variety of nuts and seeds. If you are lucky enough to observe or receive Nuthatches in your garden, consider putting out sunflower hearts, peanuts or even seed mixes, as they will likely feed on these foods.
I live backing onto a junior school playground with a small deciduous woodland being the other 3rd along with my garden. I have a pair of nuthatchessential feeding all day long, even when l’m in the garden. Though it’s not on it’s own as there are a multitude of bird’s that come in to feed each waiting for the other to make the first move then they all come in. I’m always surprised at how the nuthatch manages to stop without crashing into something as they come in to the garden at a surprising speed. Because l live in a forested area ( Berkshire ) with the forest in front of my house too we have all sorts of birds, including Jays, Bullfinch, Redpolls, Parakeets, Jackdaw, Wagtails and warblers and black cap. Just to name a few. We feel very privileged at living here and sharing our garden with so many birds.l feed them live Mealworms/Waxworms but am still yet to see the Nuthatch take any live food. Strange.
Hi
I live next to a main a road
We used to have the old Royal ordnance factory behind us which has been developed into Buckshaw village
Last year I had a bird pecking at my 50 foot pine tree which I thought was odd
Today I’ve had two nut hatches collecting sun flower seeds from garden
I am thrilled as I have three regular robins , two thrushes, three blackbirds , two wrens , two collared doves , two hedgehogs , three magpies, and two pigeons
Occasional swift’s and three tiny black and white birds that I am yet to identify
We are no means rural but I have many large trees, shrubs and a pond
Watching the birds have their morning bath on the pond waterfall is joyful
Covid has given me the time to appreciate what I have around me
We now have a nuthatch that visits our feeders in Perthshire
Regularly have Nuthatches visiting garden nut feeder – we are situated in Ayrshire on the outskirts of a small town. You always know they are about due to their very distinctive call.
We have a pair of Nuthatch in our garden in Scotland >>South Ayrshire (KA26 Barrhill area) have been visiting now for over three years
Great way for me to learn what’s on my garden. Thank you
I saw some Waxwing at Old Moor RSPB site near Bradford on 6/03/17 and numbered about 10 in all,
lots of other species to see this reserve is well worth a visit.
Nuthatches have been visiting my garden in South London for 40years. It was on the bird feeder just now.
Our garden backs onto woodland,and we have lots of bushes and trees in the garden,which attract a good variety of birds including the nuthatch. We have fed the birds on your feeds for years,and we love the results!
Lots of bullfinches,goldfinches and others (sadly no greenfinches,)but never any starlings,which is odd,and lots of squirrels visiting their own nut feeder (bought for them in desperation,to stop them raiding the birds’nuts!) Every day is different, so if you put appropriate food and water out for them all year round,the birds will come!
We have a cottage in Wales near the Élan Valley and have lots of Nuthatch in the garden, we do have trees behind and cob nut trees in the garden which I’m sure attracts them
I saw a Nuthatch for the very first time two weeks ago in our garden visiting our feeders containing seeds and nuts. We back onto fields and have a lot of well established trees and small areas of woodland around. Please could anyone advise me of their nesting habits. Would they ever nest in bird boxes? Thank you.
A pair of Nuthatches have been popping in and out of our nestbox and clearing out moss from inside. I’m hoping they stay and lay their eggs.
Nuthatches nest in one of our bird boxes on the house, have done for the last few years and visit the bird feeders daily.
We live in Stalybridge East Manchester and have a country park behind us.
Thank you – we live in the Preston, Lancashire area. I saw a Nuthatch again in our garden yesterday. I’m hopeful they may nest in one of our bird boxes.
Our home backs on to a woodland in an old quarry 2 miles south of the centre of Bath in Somerset. We have a lovely pair of nuthatches who feed on our birdfeeders and we enjoy watching them come to and fro from the woodland to feed. We put out feeders filled with ultiva everyday mix, birdnuts and fat balls. We attract many interesting birds to our garden including woodpeckers, jays, blue tits, great tits, hedge sparrows, long-tailed tits, robins, blackbirds, bullfinches,blackcaps, magpies, collared doves, pigeons(too many), wrens. We have a resident tawny owl in the woodland and I have seen him once, when returning late one evening, sitting on the gatepost.
On holiday at Pantglas Hall near Carmarthen last week. Took a supply of dried meal worms and suet fatballs with us. Once the Nuthatches had sampled the mealworms, they were never away from the feeder. It was good to watch both sexes of the Greater Spotted Woodpecker enjoying the fatballs, just 6ft from our window. Even managed a few short videos of them eating
Although we only have a small garden, and live on the edge of an estate, our garden backs onto a small wood. We are so blessed with nuthatches, bullfinches (we had two pairs this morning) on our feeders. We also enjoy the frequent visits of jays and the spotted woodpecker, and the company of the dear little wren. About five years ago we had a surprise visit to our small pond of the grey wagtail with its beautiful yellow colouring. Her visits have become more frequent and ‘she’ brought her partner with her a few weeks ago. What a delight. I have to admit my husband feeds them well and we send off for feed in bulk! Of course, we also are blighted with the greedy squirrels and pigeons. But we’re really not complaining. We are just so lucky. Oh yes, we buy cheap digestive biscuits from Lidl which the long tailed tits love. Highly recommended. Since retirement we spend more time with our dear feathered friends. Nothing can beat it.
We live in South West England backing onto a cemetery with established mature trees. We’ve always had Nuthatches visit but during the last week a pair have been popping in and out of our nestbox which we have at the end of our garden attached to one of the trees in the cemetery. They’ve been pecking around the hole and removing moss. I shall feel very honoured and privileged if they lay their eggs in there.
I have a pair of Nuthatches that visit my feeders every day. I live in urban Sutton Coldfield, and they come from a churchyard four houses up from my garden. I always hear them coming! I put out sunflower hearts which they seem to love. The local holdings much prefer these to Niger seed, too.
Nuthatches usually come to my East Devon garden in the summer and love peanut nibs and sunflower hearts. I also have a feeder with whole peanuts but they don’t visit this, they just like the pieces. There are a few mature oak trees opposite my garden although the land has been bought and despite these having TPOs they are going to come down. Sadly I imagine this bird will then no longer visit.
We have a pair of nuthatches nesting with chicks also a pair of blue tits. The last two days we have noticed that one of the nuthatches keeps flying into the tits box and chasing the adults away, it enters the box only for seconds, then comes out again. I don’t think it has harmed the chicks inside but cannot understand the behaviour. Can anyone help?
I have a nuthatch that sleeps on top of my open sash window every night, I feel sorry for it when it’s windy and rainy but he seems quite happy.
we have had a pair of nuthatches nesting in a bird box in our garden. it was absolutely fascinating watching their antics during nestbuilding. But sadly they abandoned the box/nest leaving 6 tiny eggs inside. our garden backs on to woodland and the nest box is very close to where a large sycamore was recently taken down. we think that tree may have been where they used to nest .
We live in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. Recently we have a Nuthatch visit as one of our daily birds. It is feeding from our peanut holder. We do have very old trees lining our back fence.. It is a lovely looking bird. We have never seen one before.
We have Nuthatches in our garden, they come and feed on the wheat we put down for the chickens and ducks.
We have a nuthatch which has built its nest in the wall of my bedroom. I think that it must have started last year by pecking its way into a slight hole in the mortar between 2 bricks. At the time, Iputthe noise of its work down to rodents in the space between the ceiling and the floor above ( the house is an old Victorian 3 storey building)
When the noise began again this year, I spotted the nuthatch flying to what has become a sizeable hole and realised what had been creating the din all this time !
…..more pics
…..and another
….feeding time!
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A nut hatch is now a frequent visitor in our garden in East Lothian. We have lots of trees and bushes and feeders.
I found a hole stuffed with hazel nuts and thought it was our greater spotted woodpecker who also visited before reading it was the nut hatch.
A nuthatch is taking in-shell 1 year old hazel nuts from a wire bird feeder in our garden. Is it going to be able to break through the shell to get at the edible nut inside? Or is it going to store it somewhere that will weaken the shell and eat it at a much later date?
I live on the outskirts of Blackburn Lancs and we have had nuthatches for some years … not an everyday sight but always lovely to spot them . We have a lot of trees and it’s a cottage garden with quite a wild feel …
We occasionally spot nuthatches in our small garden – we live close to big trees and woodlands.. So excited that we saw one today on two of our bird feeders actually during the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch!!
Photos
Photos of the nuthatch
We were lucky enough to see a nuthatch today for the RSPB Garden Birdwatch! We have a small garden but are near large trees and woodland .. lots of mixed seed and nuts out in the feeders .. ❤️
Nuthatches are seldom away from our garden this year on the shores of Loch Fyne in Argyllshire. I first saw them occasionally last year but they were regulars in my garden when I lived in the Scottish Borders.
We must be lucky they are regular visitors to our garden, but our house does back onto woodland, but today one bird was looking inside a bird box situated close to the house.
I’ve lived at this house, in Bolton, Lancs, for eight years and, today, for the very first time, saw this striking bird in my back garden, madly pecking away at the peanuts on the bird feeder, that’s near the bottom fence which immediately adjoins established woodland, and a tributary that flows into reservoirs.
I didn’t, then, know what bird it was, but recognised the name, once I’d done some detective work!
It came, alone, about four times within half an hour, before I had to stop bird gazing .. and I’m hoping, now it knows I have food it likes, it’ll become a regular visitor and, hopefully bring its mate.
Other ‘garden’ visitors (I’ve seen) include blue tit, great tit, Robin, blackbird, magpie, jay, wood pigeon, collared dove, sparrow, a wren occasionally, greenfinch, song thrush, starling.
Still to see my favourite, the Goldfinch, here … though my neighbour across the road, has many visiting quite regularly!
Also, in the first six months here, we had a beautiful Greater Spotted Woodpecker visit just once, and several Green Parakeets visited three or four times, but, sadly, neither species has ever returned (that I’m aware of, at least!).