by Riverwalk Birding Club
posted October 7, 2008
“WINTER BIRDING”
One of the best times for birding is coming soon, the weather will cool and the leaves will change colors and fall. This opens up the trees exposing many birds that you may not see in the summer, such as “The Nuthatches “ and Creepers “, these small stout tree climbers with strong woodpeckerlike bills, strong feet, stubby square-cut tails are not easy to find running down trees headfirst looking for insects.
At first you may think these are migrants moving into the area but they are year round birds that are just hard to locate in heavy leaves, so we see them more often in the fall and winter.
The White-Breasted Nuthatch is the largest of the group but still a small bird at 5-6”, the male is the one with the dark topknot. They will visit your feeders for sunflower seeds but are very fast as they habitually run headfirst down tree trunks looking for insects. Very beautiful combination of white, grey, blue and black they are a joy to watch in the fall.
The Brown-Headed Nuthatch all look alike, the brown topknot and smaller size 4 1/2” gets your attention, but it is also a fast bird moving on and off a feeder with sunflower seeds.
The Red-Breasted Nuthatch may be the most colorful with its red-breast and black line through the eye and white line above the eye. The male also has the black topknot, it’s also a small bird same size as the Brown-Headed.
But the Brown Creeper is the hardest of the group to locate, a small ,slim, camouflaged tree-climber who is always heading up the tree trunk instead of down like the White-Breasted. It has a small slightly curved bill used to pry insects from the bark as it circles up the tree trunk. You must look close to locate it and keep track of it’s fast movement, I don’t know how it got the name Creeper as it does not creep along.
We hope you enjoy this chat about Nuthatches and Creepers and we thank Charles Dean, Jack Gentle and Richard Schier for the loan of their great birds pics.
| Dining Out | Business | Movies | Focus | About Us |
| Church | Living Well | Memories | Outdoors | Real Estate | Student Scene | Travel |