|
FAMILY: NUTHATCHES |
|
|
Nuthatch (Sitta europaea)
The top of its head and back is ash-grey; the belly is white with reddish sides. The nuthatch can run on vertical trunks of trees, equally easily up and down the trunk. Moving down the trunk, it extracts insects from cracks in the bark which are opened upwards, moving up from cracks opening sideways and downwards. Males begin displaying at the end of February. Their song is composed of trills of loud pure whistle. The height of their singing is in March. The nuthatch nests in hollows. If the entrance hole is too large, the bird reduces it to the required size, covering the sides with clay. The nest itself is constructed of fine thin plates of bark of trees. The bird brings them to the bottom of the hollow, treads a small hollow in them and the house for the babies to come is ready. Nestlings remain for a long time under the protection of the hollow, from which the parents keep off other birds, assuming threatening poses, and, if needed, ramming them. For winter, the nuthatch, like many titmice, stores seeds of trees in crevices of bark. If one feeds them with sunflower seeds, they, like titmice, easily get used to taking food from ones palm. And if a familiar person comes to them without sunflower seeds they can remind about themselves. For example, once a nuthatch tried to draw my attention to itself, flying very close to my face; then it sat beside me on a tree trunk and sang its ringing song! |
