A Tool-Using Nuthatch

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.

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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, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/119424, 0.29-.31]

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, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/40782, .04-.08]

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, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/40782, .04-.08]

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, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/59160541, .03-.08]

A resourceful bird, the nuthatch.

For BirdNote, I’m Mary McCann.

Today’s show brought to you by the Bobolink Foundation.
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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 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