NUTHATCHES : Family Sittidae [ 445 ] 



and in Oregon. One of most common and widely distributed of smaller timber 

 birds. In Oregon: Permanent resident and breeding species in all timbered sections. 

 In winter apt to be found anywhere. 



THE RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH is common in all types of timber found in 

 the State, though perhaps it is most abundant during the summer in the 

 fir, spruce, and lodgepole-pine forests. It has been found breeding at 

 Portland, however, where Jewett found a slightly incubated set of six 

 eggs on May 17, 1908. At the other extreme of the State, Cantwell found 

 a nest containing young near Sled Springs Ranger Station on the Wallowa 

 National Forest, May i, 1919. Braly found four nests near Fort Klamath 

 between May 15 and 30, 1930. Three sets contained six eggs each; the 

 fourth, five. Outside of the breeding season the birds are found over the 

 entire State. It is no uncommon thing to hear their nasal yank yank and 

 watch their acrobatic performances on the sage branches far from the 

 nearest timber, and on several occasions we have found small bands of 

 them working up and down the tule stalks on the edges of Malheur Lake. 

 This nuthatch was first listed for the State by Mearns (1879), wn had 

 three specimens taken by Lieutenant Willis Wittich at Fort Klamath in 

 1878, two of them on May 9. Since that time it has been mentioned by 

 most of the contributors to Oregon ornithological literature. 



Black-eared Nuthatch: 



Sitta pygmaea melanotis van Rossem 



DESCRIPTION. "Adults: Top of head grayish brown or olive gray, nape usually 

 white; rest of upper parts bluish gray; tail with basal half of middle feathers white; 

 eye stripe black; chin white; rest of under parts dull buffy. Young: wing coverts 

 usually more or less distinctly edged with pale buffy. Length: 3.80-4.55, wing about 

 1.60, bill .60-. 65." (Bailey) Nest: In crevices of bark and holes in trees, lined with 

 feathers, down, and wool. Eggs: 6 to 9, white, covered with red spots. 

 DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from southern British Columbia and northern Idaho 

 south to Mexican boundary. In Oregon: Permanent resident and breeding species of 

 Blue Mountains, yellow-pine belt in Cascades, and timbered sections of Klamath 

 and Lake Counties. 



THE TINY little Black-eared Nuthatch is to us indelibly associated with 

 the yellow pine so much so that we instinctively begin to look for it 

 whenever we get into one of the beautiful parklike forests on the eastern 

 slope of the Cascades or in the Blue Mountains. We have found it com- 

 monly in the yellow-pine forests of Wallowa, Union, Baker, Umatilla, 

 Wheeler, Grant, Malheur, Crook, Jefferson, Wasco, Deschutes, Lake, 

 Klamath, and eastern Jackson Counties. It probably occurs also in the 

 southern part of Morrow County and in the yellow-pine areas of southern 

 Douglas County, although we have no records from either place. 



In its chosen haunts, it travels through most of the year in little flocks. 

 Its shrill calls are much unlike the nasal ones of its relatives, but its 



