Nuthatches: Family Sittidae

The next time you are walking in the woods, look for the small passerines jumping and walking up and down the trunk of a tree, these are the nuthatches, and you can't help but love them. The nuthatch family is small, only containing one genus and about 24 species, but these species are uniquely adapted to their environment. Their powerful perching feet allow them to cling to the bark of trees, standing nearly horizontally as they spend most of their day walking up and down trees hunting insects. Nuthatches are insectivores, but instead of having evolved amazing flying abilities to catch their prey, like swallows or flycatchers, these birds evolved the way of the woodpecker, extracting insects from the bark of a tree.

Smart Little Bug-ers

Nuthatches are not related to woodpeckers in any way, besides the fact that they are both birds, so they do not have the adaptations that woodpeckers have for extracting insects. These smart little birds have devised their own way of pulling insects from wood, they use a tool. Some species of nuthatches are known for pulling off the scaly bark of a pine tree and using a small scale as a wedge to pull off bigger scales. Underneath the bark scales is a veritable buffet of tasty targets.

Intelligence helps in a lot of ways. The same is true for nuthatches. Before the winter, many species of nuthatches will cache their food, meaning they hide it in the spaces between rocks, or inside a tree. They can normally remember where they hid their snacks for over 3 months, so are able to eat enough to survive the winter.

They cause cavities... and no toothpaste in the world can stop them!

Nuthatches are cavity nesting birds, meaning they live in holes in trees or in holes in the ground. Many species of cavity nesting birds have to wait for someone else to carve out a cavity for them, but nuthatches are able to carve out their own, if the wood is soft enough. Woodpeckers have no problem pounding their head into a tree repeatedly to make their cavity, their skulls are well adapted to let them do it. Nuthatches don't have as specially adapted skulls, so they will either find an old cavity or carve one in soft wood.