Toot, toot, toot – the redbreasted nuthatch returns to Charlotte
Eastern birders got some good news this week when Ron Pittaway of Ontario Field Ornithologists released his annual Winter Finch Forecast. This forecast evaluates cone crops in Canada and northern regions of the United States and then projects how birds that depend on cones for winter food will react.
Since cone crops in the northeastern United States are poor this year, winter finches such as the purple finch and pine siskin are expected to move south in larger numbers than usual. These finches are present in at least tiny numbers every winter in the southern Piedmont but data this year indicates they should be easier to observe.
The forecast also predicts the movements of non-finch species that depend on cone crops for winter survival. One of these is the red-breasted nuthatch. Some years this nuthatch species can be entirely absent, or present but in such tiny numbers, that they are undetectable. For the coming winter, the red-breasted nuthatch is expected to move south in large numbers, and it appears they are already making inroads into the piedmont.
Just a week ago I heard the familiar nasal toot, toot, toot of a red-breasted nuthatch right in my own yard, a sound I hadn’t heard locally for some years. Within the next couple of days a few more reports came in from adjacent Gaston County and other areas of the Piedmont and coastal plain of both Carolinas. It’s not a full-scale invasion as yet but we are off to a promising start.
Of the three nuthatch species that we can see in the southern piedmont, the red-breasted nuthatch is the only one that is highly migratory. Folks that regularly feed wild birds are familiar with our resident brown-headed and white-breasted nuthatches. The red-breasted acts similarly to these and will frequent feeders if pines are nearby.
They are the most handsome of the nuthatches in my opinion with their prominent white eyebrow stripe set off by a black cap and black eyeline, blue-gray upperparts, and bright reddish underparts. They are also pretty vocal so familiarize yourself with the characteristic calls. They will occur singly, not in family groups like the brown-headed nuthatch; or in pairs like the white-breasted nuthatch.
October is the month when resident winter birds begin to arrive, so keep an eye and ear open this month for the arrival of red-breasted nuthatches.
Taylor Piephoff is a naturalist with an interest in the birds and wildlife of the southern Piedmont: PiephoffT@aol.com. Check out his blog at piedmontbirding.blogspot.com
This story was originally published September 29, 2016 at 12:17 PM with the headline "Toot, toot, toot – the redbreasted nuthatch returns to Charlotte."