Episode 75: Red-breasted nuthatch – Voice of the Wild

This is Brodie with Illinois Extension and I’m here with a new “voice of the wild”

This bird is an honorary so-called “winter finch.” That’s because, like evening grosbeaks, crossbills, and siskens, their population, which typically stays in the candian north, occasionally irrupts across the united states in search of food. They’re only an honorary winter finch because they aren’t a finch at all, they’re a nuthatch; the red breasted nuthatch.

LIke the more common white breasted nuthatch, the red breasted tends to forage for food along tree trunks, spiraling down and across the bark searching for insects and seeds. both have a honk for a call, though the red breasted’s honk is much higher in pitch; its described by my old peterson guide as sounding like a tiny tin horn. Here’s the red breasted nuthatch again.

Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for today’s sound. Learn more about voice of the wild at go.illinois.edu/VOW