Red-breasted Nuthatches Irrupting!
Keep your eyes and ears open for these entertaining and acrobatic little birds! They will be seeking suet, black oil sunflower seeds and split peanuts at your feeders. Look for them at your bird baths, too!
Red-breasted Nuthatch image by The Backyard Naturalist’s Facebook friend, David Spitzer.
Top: Female Red-breasted Nuthatch Sitta canadensis, a featured image from Wikimedia Commons.
Once again, can we emphasize ‘acrobatic’? David Spitzer posted this photo of a Red-breasted Nuthatch feeding upside down on The Backyard Naturalist’s Facebook page. This is a ‘lifer’ for David. Thank you, David! We love it when you post on our Facebook page!
About Fall Migration 2016
If you’d like to find out more about Fall Migration and how to host birds in your backyard, see our page Backyard Birder’s Guide to Fall Migration
More about Red-breasted Nuthatches
To get the complete story about the Red-breasted Nuthatch, visit the best reference online. We recommend the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Red-breasted Nuthatches. You’ll find detailed information on how to identify these birds, excellent sound files, video and lots of cool facts about their lives and behaviors.
What are ‘irruptions’?
Cornell Lab defines an irruption as “the sudden change in the population density of an organism. When speaking of birds, irruptions refer to the movement of northern-wintering species to the south in years of low food availability. Irruptive species include redpolls, Evening Grosbeaks, and Red-breasted Nuthatches, among others.”
For a full range of information about irruptions, which species are potentially ‘irruptive’ and understanding patterns of interruptions, Cornell Lab is also your best bet.
