Arthropods are important in early summer, especially to chicks.
Browses, grazes, and gleans food from ground and vegetation. Searches and pounces on arthropods. Uses thickets of alder, maple, hawthorn, birch, and other deciduous trees for summer and fall cover, and adjacent conifer stands, which are used for winter shelter and escape cover. Male uses medium to large rotting logs as drumming platforms. Yearlong, diurnal activity.