Brown-headed Nuthatch, one cute elfin

 

A seldom traveled lane through the sprawling Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in eastern North Carolina. I spent a few days a couple of weeks ago based in Manteo, NC, and made several trips into this refuge. My original primary objective was American Black Bears (Ursus americanus). As fate would have it, an unusually cold snap (9 F one morning!) apparently put the bears into a state of torpor, and I saw none. Nor did anyone else that I encountered. The bear density here is amazing, and as they usually do not truly hibernate, these bears grow to massive proportions. Apparently, one was documented at 850 lbs.! I'll be back to try for bears later.

There was an abundance of consolation prizes, and one of my favorites was a polar opposite of a giant bear on the size scale, the Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta pusilla). Along with the similar-sized western Pymy Nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea), this is the smallest North American nuthatch. A Brown-headed Nuthatch weighs 10 grams, and it would take nearly 39,000 of them to equal the weight of the aforementioned jumbo American Black Bear.

It didn't take long to find some of the bark-crawling sprites. Scattered older-growth pine groves produced them, and I found about three small bands of nuthatches in trees like this. Brown-headed Nuthatch is a social species, particularly in winter when small groups form.

I heard them first. Brown-headed Nuthatches deliver utterly delightful high-pitched calls suggestive of little squeak toys. Once one has pinpointed them by sound, it's an easy matter to clap eyes on the birds. They aren't shrinking violets but do tend to stay high in the canopy. Watch long enough though, and a bird or two will come lower. Hard workers, Brown-headed Nuthatches seem to work every inch, nook, and cranny of their host trees.

A Brown-headed Nuthatch dangles from a cone. No part of the pine goes uninspected, and this one spent a minute or few thoroughly probing this cone.

Most people, upon seeing one of these tiny nuthatches, would say or think something to the effect of "cute!" And cute they are. Unless you were a lacewing larva or some other small invertebrate attempting to hid in the bark. Then, the looming nuthatch would be Freddie Krueger incarnate. All things are relative.

The Brown-headed Nuthatch is nearing its northern range limits at Alligator River NWR. It is almost exclusively a bird of coastal plain states along the southern Atlantic, Florida, and Gulf states west to Texas. They are always tightly wedded to mature pines, of a number of species. Knowing its calls helps immensely in finding them.

FOOTNOTE: Like other southern pine specialty birds such as Bachman's Sparrow (Peucaea aestivalis) and Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Dryobates borealis), Brown-headed Nuthatches occasionally peregrinate well beyond their normal range. On November 21, 2001, one appeared at the Geauga County, Ohio feeders of Linda Gilbert. It remained until January 15, 2002. That bird represents Ohio's only record. I suspect that someday, one will appear here again and if it does, what a stir that little 10-gram ball of fluff will cause.