by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

Click on pictures to enlarge

The Pygmy, Red-breasted, and White-breasted Nuthatches are very familiar here in the West Valley. Tiny, acrobatic, vocal birds that usually stay here year ’round, they are fun to watch. Read on to see what I have discovered about their unique gifts.

The Pygmy Nuthatch, smallest of the three at 4.25 inches, creates a new nest cavity every year in a well-rotted tree – often a Ponderosa pine – where they may have nested in previous years. They start excavating the hole early because it may take up to a month before it is ready!

This snag appears to have hosted many families! On February 3, 2026, work was started.

Pygmy Nuthatches often enlist the help of siblings and previous year’s offspring in raising their families. With so much help, one bird can guard the entrance to the nest. Most of the nests I’ve observed have a designated guard post. Raising 6-8 nestlings requires a lot of insects and spiders!

Red-breasted Nuthatches share the task of nest excavation. At left, a female pause her work to show me her progress on a Ponderosa pine that had many other holes. The female’s gray cap is hard to see on these fast-moving birds. At right, a dead Douglas fir tree in our back yard was the chosen spot for a nest hole a few years ago: how convenient it was to observe! I sat nearby watching the male disappear into the hole and pop out with a beak full of sawdust-fine chips to get rid of!

Red-breasted Nuthatches sometimes utilize manufactured bird houses, but they add their unique touches to them! They alter the entrance, as seen at left; they gather pitch from nearby trees to smear on and around the entrance. It is believed the pitch deters other birds and insects from going in.

White-breasted Nuthatches, the largest of the three species at 6″, perform an entrancing ritual when building their nests! At top, the male caught an insect and used it like a dust mop near the entrance and then daubed the circumference of the hole with the insect. I observed the bird stash the torn remains of this one in a bark crevice, get a new one to continue the process. I watched this performance for 12 minutes, at which time he flew off.

After a couple of minutes, a white little head appeared at the entrance to look around and disappear; shortly, the head appeared and poked out, paused, and then the female came out and flew off.

But wait! White-breasted Nuthatches have another amazing talent!

White-breasted Nuthatches use tools! At left, she harvested a chip of bark almost bigger than she is, maneuvered it around…

and used it to pry off another chip! They do this to expose insects under the bark.

Nuthatches going about their lives after nesting is done. They search for food, bathe and defend themselves as the White-breasted Nuthatch did when he lost his patience with a hornet that wanted to get too close at a woodland puddle.