Episode 93: White-Breasted Nuthatch – Voice of the Wild

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

A noisy and charismatic bird who’ll watch through beady black eyes as you refill your feeders, often craning their head back at an angle as they head down the trunk of the nearest tree. A few impatient honks later, and they’ll dart to the feeder to grab a sunflower seed which they’ll hatch open later. This is the white-breasted nuthatch.

Odds are good that a white breasted nuthatch at your winter feeder is the same that visits in the summer; once these birds pair up they’ll stay together and on their breeding territory pretty much year-round. Their blue-gray back and white breast may be common sights, but next time you get the chance take a close look at their plumage and note the modest dash of chestnut beneath the tail and on either side of their rear. The white-breasted has a lower “honk” than the closely related but harder to find red-breasted nuthatch. Here’s the white-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