Nuthatch - an unusual bird. Her name already says a lot. It indicates that the bird can crawl. However, such a conclusion can be given by a non-observant person. The bird does not creep. She runs, but very fast.
Amazing Poisoner
Nuthatch - a unique bird. She is the only one of the feathered woodpeckers able to move upside down on a vertical trunk.
What does a nuthatch bird look like? This little short-tailed bird. Her pale ash body in the upper part has a bluish tint. The plumage of the abdomen is white.
Nuthatch - a small bird. Its weight ranges from fifteen to twenty-six grams. The length of the body is thirteen to sixteen centimeters, and the wings are 7.3–9.2 cm. The wingspan reaches 25–28 cm.
Nuthatch bird (see photo below) has a rather long and straight beak. The black strip passing through the eyes gives it a curious and sly look.
There are practically no seasonal differences in body color in the bird. In addition, the soft and thick plumage of young individuals does not change in a later period of life. Only in adult nuthatch creepers, the bottom of the body has a brownish tint, and the strip through the eyes and the gray top becomes brownish. After molting in the autumn, the differences disappear. And no one will be able to say before him a young or adult bird is a nuthatch.
The description of the amazing poison frog does not bypass his leg. Thanks to them, the bird moves along the vertical trunks like a living mercury ball. Yes, the skill of a nuthatch in a tree-climbing is made possible by feet. They are relatively short, but have unusually long fingers with very sharp and curved claws. This allows the bird to capture a significant surface of the tree trunk. Between the tips of the nails located on the back and middle fingers of the feathered woodpecker, a large distance. Its value is equal to almost the entire length of the feathered body. Thanks to this, the nuthatch can calmly stay on the tree trunk upside down.
Feathered fidget
Nuthatch - not a shy bird. She can let a person to her a few steps away. However, it does not cease to make a characteristic tweet-tweet or tweet-tweet sound, while examining the trunks and branches of trees. A curious bird can even approach a person herself. At the same time, she pretends to have stumbled upon him by accident. The nuthatch expresses its “chagrin” with ringing whistles of “sit-sit”, similar to the coachman's cry: “Save-and-and-shit!” At the same time, with genuine slyness, the woodpecker peeks out from behind the tree trunks.
Nuthatch is always cheerful and tireless. He is agile, lively and active. In this bird, the characters of woodpecker and titmouse are as if connected. No wonder the German name for this bird is “Spechtmeise”. Translated, it means a woodpecker.
Habitat
You can meet the nuthatch throughout the forest zone from Western Europe right up to the Far East. He avoids areas of the Far North, but in the southerly direction lives an amazing tree-climber to the tropics.
A special type of nuthatch is common in Western Siberia. It has certain differences from the Scandinavian subspecies found on European territory. In the Siberian nuthatch, chestnut-colored feathers are absent on the sides.
Prefers a bird to settle in floodplain and island forests. Sometimes it is met in the southern steppe regions. In the Altai Republic and in the Altai Territory, the nuthatch lives in mixed and coniferous forests located near the Ob and Biya, as well as in tape burs and spikes on the Bie-Chumysh Upland. You can meet surprisingly poison frog in the mountains. Nuthatch lives in forests, located at an altitude of 2000-2200 m above sea level.
Nutrition
In the spring and summer periods, the food of the nuthatch is insects. With pleasure, he eats a poison frog of ants and dipterans, caterpillars and butterflies, bugs and leaf beetles, weevils, as well as other beetles. He does not disdain spiders. As a rule, the nuthatch collects its feed on large branches, as well as in cracks and crevices of tree trunks. But sometimes the bird has to hammer the bark to extract insects and larvae from under it. Extracting the flesh of an acorn or hazelnut, a nuthatch can cram them into a crevice of the bark or press it to the trunk with a paw. After that, he smashes his prey with blows of a strong beak. In spring and fall, nuthatch can be found on earth. He descends from a tree trunk to search for insects in fallen leaves. In the autumn, the poison frog eats berries, for example, bird cherry.
Nuthatch - migratory bird or not? If not, then what does she eat in the cold season? Nuthatch - a bird wintering in its native places. In order to survive the hunger period, this restless bird keeps food for the future. Starting in early autumn, the nuthatch thrusts pine nuts, acorns, and also the fruits of linden, hazel and beech into cracks and niches located in tree trunks. In the pantries of the stocking bird you can find various seeds and maple lionfish. This work ends only in December.
Wintering
Nuthatch - migratory bird or not? Ornithologists have answered this question for a long time. Amazing tree frogs winter in their native forest. They do not fly south. The bird is sedentary. However, in the autumn and winter, it is found in various forests, as well as in the steppe zone. There she masters the territory of bayrachny and field-protecting massifs, gardens and riverine thickets.
It is there that the nuthatch lives in these seasons. Migratory bird or not a unique poison frog? No, ornithologists attribute it to the group of partially nomadic. As soon as spring comes, birds again move to mixed and deciduous forests.
Jacks
Nuthatch usually settles in hollows of trees. The entrance to your home is a farm bird spreading with manure, mud or clay. This building material the nuthatch wears in its beak and sticks it around the hole until the diameter of the tap hole is reduced to about thirty-five millimeters.
The litter in the nest of the woodpecker is made of a loose and thick layer of scales of pine bark. Sometimes there are up to two and a half thousand. The bark is an excellent heat insulator. In addition, it rarely causes parasites. Thus, in the hollow of a nuthatch, it is convenient, hygienic and warm.
Breeding
Nuthatch chicks leave their native nest very early. This usually happens either in late May or early June.
Clutch of a nuthatch totals from four to twelve eggs, decorated with reddish-brown spots. Their incubation is exclusively done by the female. The male regularly brings her food. Parents who have appeared chicks feed from twenty two to twenty five days. This is pretty hard work. During the day, you have to bring food to the chicks up to three hundred and eighty times. At the same time, parents also care about nest hygiene. At least fifty to sixty times during the day they take out capsules covered with elastic mucus beyond its limits, replacing night pots with small creepers.
Nuthatch in captivity
If you catch a surprising poison dart frog and put it in a cage, then it quickly gets used to new conditions. Nuthatch can be placed in one cage with siskins, linnet or tapas. There he will become one of the funniest room birds. You can watch him for hours. The nuthatch will not cease to amaze with its most skillful climbing on the tree bark located in the cage, as well as somersault on the perch.
The bird will need to be given a mixture of hemp or other seeds with ant eggs. Pine nuts are great as goodies for birds.