Join BirdNote tomorrow, November 30th!
Illustrator David Sibley and actor H. Jon Benjamin will face off in the bird illustration battle of the century during BirdNote's Year-end Celebration and Auction!
© Matt Ward
The nuthatch’s beak is all business. Long, slender, sharp: it can pluck a tiny spider from a crevice in the bark or carve a nest hole right through the outer hide of a tree. And the Brown-headed Nuthatch is even known to use tools! Picking up a flake of pine bark in its beak, the bird uses it as a lever to pry up the bark scales on a tree and get to the insects below. A resourceful bird, the nuthatch.
BirdNote®
A Tool-Using Nuthatch
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote.
The nuthatch has a compact body, longish legs and strong claws for clambering up and down tree trunks. It scampers toylike on the underside of branches, making beeping sounds.
[Red-breasted Nuthatch call]
But its beak is all business. Long, slender, sharp: it can pluck a tiny spider from a crevice in the bark or carve a nest hole right through the outer hide of a tree.
[Brown-headed Nuthatch call]
As if that beak weren’t enough, the Brown-headed Nuthatch of Southeastern pine forests is even known to use tools! Picking up a flake of pine bark in its beak, the bird uses it as a lever to pry up the bark scales on a tree and get to the insects below. Or, it might use a twig held in its beak to reach prey.
[Brown-headed Nuthatch call]
The nuthatch may carry a particularly handy tool from tree to tree and later use it to conceal its stash. Scientists consider this tool use a rare behavior in birds.
[Brown-headed Nuthatch call]
A resourceful bird, the nuthatch.
For BirdNote, I’m Mary McCann.
BirdNote gives you the sounds of birds every day, and you can get the sights as well when you follow us on Instagram, at BirdNote Radio. / @BirdNoteRadio
###
Senior Producer: John Kessler
Production Manager: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Red-breasted Nuthatch ML119424 Recorded by G. Keller, Brown-headed Nuthatch ML40782 recorded by G. Budney and ML59160541 recorded by R. Wigh
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2021 BirdNote April 2021 January 2024
Narrator: Mary McCann
ID# BHNU-02-2021-04-08 BHNU-02
References: https://abcbirds.org/bird/brown-headed-nuthatch/?omcampaign=membership=…
https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/bnhnut/cur/foodhabits
Bob Sundstrom
Writer
Mary McCann
NarratorSights & Sounds
