The birds of “Discovery”—Red-breasted Nuthatch

This is the eighth in a series of posts focused on the birds featured in my new novel, Discovery. Look for another one each week.

At a high school football game, when I was a few years younger, a fight broke out between two boys. One was tall, and the other seemed about half his size. Yet the small one taunted the tall one and jumped to strike him in the face again and again. I don’t know what brought the duel on or which one started it. But I can imagine what was going through the tall guy’s mind.

“If I hit this kid, I’m in trouble.” The people in the crowd surrounding the two combatants would call him a bully and tell him to pick on someone his own size. If he walked away, he’d be labeled a coward. Either way, he’d lose. Now, years later, I wonder who was the real bully. I guess it depends on who started the fight. If it was the tall boy, I’m all for the little guy. If it was the shorter kid. . .well, not so much.

Which brings me, finally, to the Red-breasted Nuthatch. It’s a tiny bird with a big attitude. Mind you, I’m making no moral judgments. Why would I? It’s a bird, for Pete’s sake.

During nest building, Red-breasted Nuthatches will chase larger birds away, attacking them quite aggressively. They also have no qualms about swiping construction materials from other birds’ nests. In short, they’d make a poor choice for a children’s story about the virtues of sharing. Maybe that’s why there are so many of them, and their population appears to be growing. Its range covers most of North America, year-round in the western mountains, Great Lakes region, northeastern states and eastern mountains.

Red-breasted Nuthatches do seem to get along with other birds when they’re hungry. They’re often found in mixed flocks with chickadees and a variety of small birds, moving along the trunks and branches in all different directions, looking for insects hidden in the bark.

Described as a “nasal yammering” by allaboutbirds.org, the Red-breasted Nuthatch’s call is a good way to identify it. Of course, the rusty underparts are a giveaway, as is the bold, black line reaching from the base of the bill to the back of its very short neck.

Tool use among birds isn’t common, but Red-breasted Nuthatches have figured out how make a trowel out of a bit of bark. They use the chip to apply tree resin inside and outside the hole they excavate for nesting. The male takes care of the outside, and the female decorates the inside. The sticky stuff might deter other birds from trying to take over the nest or predators from attacking. Nuthatches avoid the resin by diving through the opening.

Seeing Red-breasted Nuthatches here in Missouri is a treat. They sometimes show up at our feeders in the winter. Maybe because they aren’t nesting then, we haven’t yet witnessed their penchant for pugilism.