page_title: White-breasted nuthatch
section_title: Breeding
hierarchical_section_title: White-breasted nuthatch / Behavior / Breeding
caption_attribution_description: White-breasted Nuthatch (nesting) -NMP 6-11-12 3
context_page_description: The white-breasted nuthatch is a small songbird of the nuthatch family common across much of temperate North America. It is stocky, with a large head, short tail, powerful bill, and strong feet. It has a black cap, white face, chest, and flanks, blue-gray upperparts, and a chestnut lower belly. Its nine subspecies differ mainly in the color of the body plumage.
  Like other nuthatches, the white-breasted nuthatch forages for insects on trunks and branches and is able to move head-first down trees. Seeds form a substantial part of its winter diet, as do acorns and hickory nuts stored in the fall. Old-growth woodland is preferred for breeding. The nest is in a hole in a tree, and the breeding pair may smear insects around the entrance as a deterrent to squirrels. Predators include hawks, owls, and snakes. Forest clearance may lead to local habitat loss, but there are no major conservation concerns over most of its range.
context_section_description: The white-breasted nuthatch is monogamous, and pairs form following a courtship in which the male bows to the female, spreading his tail and drooping his wings while swaying back and forth; he also feeds her morsels of food. The pair establish a territory of 0.1–0.15 km² (25–37 acres) in woodland, and up to 0.2 km² (49 acres) in semi-wooded habitats, and then remain together year-round until one partner dies or disappears. The nest cavity is usually a natural hole in a decaying tree, sometimes an old woodpecker nest.
  The nest hole is usually 3–12 m (9.8–39.4 ft) high in a tree and is lined with fur, fine grass, and shredded bark. The clutch is 5 to 9 eggs which are creamy-white, speckled with reddish brown, and average 19 mm × 14 mm (0.75 in × 0.55 in) in size. The eggs are incubated by the female for 13 to 14 days prior to hatching, and the altricial chicks fledge in a further 18 to 26 days. Both adults feed the chicks in the nest and for about two weeks after fledging, and the male also feeds the female while she is incubating. Once independent, juveniles leave the adults' territory and either establish their own territory or become "floaters", unpaired birds without territories. It is probably these floaters which are mainly involved in the irregular dispersals of this species. This species of nuthatch roosts in tree holes or behind loose bark when not breeding and has the unusual habit of removing its feces from the roost site in the morning. It usually roosts alone except in very cold weather, when up to 29 birds have been recorded together.
caption: An adult at nest entrance, feeding its nestlings.
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