How to Attract Red-breasted Nuthatches to Your Garden

Red-breasted Nuthatches are energetic, active birds

native to the northern woods and western mountains
of North America. These hyperactive visitors to
your birdfeeder are characterized by their long bills
and short tails, they often co-habitat with other birds
like chickadees, woodpeckers, and kinglets. These
birds are often found on tree trunks and branches,
searching for their next meal of hidden insects
within the cracks in the bark. These songbirds’
excitable calls remind you of miniature car horns that are honked at the tops of the trees.

The Red-breasted Nuthatch can be described as a small bird that has a sharp expression, due to
its rather long and pointed beak. Nuthatches also have very short tails; it has a plump and barrel-
chested body that makes it look like it doesn’t even have a neck. These birds also have short, but
very broad wings. Red-breasted Nuthatches have bluish gray feathers and a strongly patterned
head; it has a black cap, a black stripe through its eyes and a white stripe over them. Their under
parts have an intense cinnamon color; this coloration is slightly paler in the females of the
species.

The Red-breasted Nuthatch is the only one of its species of North American Nuthatches that
have a stripe running through the eyes, and also the only Nuthatch that have a rusty or cinnamon
colored under part. Though a bit smaller than the White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-breasted
Nuthatches are bigger than the Pygmy Nuthatches found in the West and the Brown-headed
Nuthatches that are found in the Southeast. Red-breasted Nuthatches look similar to Brown
Creepers, but the Creepers have longer tails and move a whole lot slower than Nuthatches. The
Nuthatch may also be mistaken for Black and White Warblers that also forage in the tree trunks,
their only difference is that the Warbler is much heavily streaked all over the body, it does not
have the solid gray back and cinnamon under part of a Red-breasted Nuthatch.

Where should you look if you want to find the Red-breasted Nuthatch? These are birds that are
native to forests that are mainly coniferous trees. Look for them among pine cone-bearing trees
like spruce, firs, and western red cedars, they can also be found within the branches of aspen and
poplar trees too. In the northeastern North America, these birds are commonly found within
deciduous trees like maples, birch, and oaks.

You can locate the Red-breasted Nuthatch by listening for its distinctly nasal and yammering
call. Another way is to find a flock of chickadees as it is known that nuthatches often group with
them when foraging for food. Look along the tree trunks for a small bird clambering up and
down them, and keep your eyes peeled for the distinctive black and white stripes on these birds’
faces.
A great way to attract Red-breasted Nuthatches to your yard is by using bird feeders and bird
baths. Stock your feeders with large seeds like peanuts and sunflowers; they also go for suet and
peanut butter. If you want these lovely birds to frequent your garden for years to come, consider
planting coniferous trees so that they can have shelter.