PYGMY NUTHATCH 45 



[It] "lives commonly in the same habitat, the coniferous forest, with the Santa 

 Cruz Chestnut-sided Chickadee; and it does so, therefore, compatibly. Our 

 observations show the niche occupied by the nuthatch to be essentially different. 

 While the two birds have about the same forage beat and cruising radius, often 

 indeed seen closely associated, the nuthatch seeks (at least in the season of 

 greatest food scarcity) static insect food in crevices of dry cones, twigs, and 

 smaller branches in the subperipheral parts of the trees, and it uses its specialized 

 digging tool (the bill) to dislodge or uncover these insects. In other words, 

 the nuthatch has a food source beyond the usual reach of the chickadee. And 

 then, too, with suitably rotted boles of trees available, it digs its own nesting 

 cavity ; It does not tolerate the chickadee. 



Nesting. — The same observers write : 



The breeding season for this species [in the Point Lobos Reserve] was a long 

 one, with a prolonged period of preparation. As early in the spring as February 

 18, there were signs of pairing in this bird. In an excited flock in a pine, one 

 individual was seen feeding another. Later, on several occasions, a male ( ?) was 

 seen to feed its mate. 



Actual excavation at a nesting site was noted first on March 20. Just before 

 noon, a nuthatch was digging 15 feet up on the west side of a 25-foot pine stump. 

 It left the cavity, barely started, but returned again in 5 minutes. More than 

 a month later, on April 24, a nuthatch, then out of sight, was still digging at 

 this cavity. * * * 



Thirty-eight occupied nesting cavities were found, all of them in pines or 

 dead remains of pines. The sites selected were high ones, averaging 30 feet 

 above the ground and running as high as 60 feet. Only seven nests were found 

 lower than 20 feet and only one under 10 feet. Sometimes the excavation was 

 started at some crevice or break already existing in the tree, but more often, 

 and especially when the wood was partly decayed, it was started on a plain 

 surface. Once a cavity started by a haii'y woodpecker was deepened and occupied 

 by a pair of nuthatches. * * * 



The bluebirds were the most serious competitors of this species for nest sites, 

 and in several instances, in which the entrances were of sufficient size, they 

 temporarily or even permanently ousted the smaller birds from a cavity. Nearly 

 always in such cases the nuthatches had been the excavators, but the larger birds 

 seemed usually to be the aggressors. At one stump where nuthatches were 

 digging only 2 feet below a bluebird's nest, there were alarm notes and activity 

 when the bluebirds were near. The nuthatches usually retreated, but they 

 sometimes kept on working. 



The birds at one nest showed great excitement when a hairy woodpecker 

 came near. Chickadees were competitors of close to nuthatch size. Once one 

 was seen pursued by a chickadee, and at another time one was chasing a chick- 

 adee. In general, however, these two species avoided one another by nesting 

 at wholly different levels. One pair of nuthatches which was feeding young 

 chased away a male linnet and, later, a violet-green swallow, from the vicinity 

 of the nest. 



Mrs. Amelia S. Allen tells me that in fall these nuthatches "wander 

 through the lower valleys where their chattering notes betray their 

 presence in the tops of the trees among the cones. At Inverness, in 

 Marin County, they are much at home among the Bishop pines, and 

 at Carmel, in Monterey County, among the Monterey pines." 



