496 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Length 5.5-6 inches; extent 10.5-11; wing 3.5; tail 1.75; bill .66; 

 tarsus .7. 



Distribution. The White-breasted nuthatch breeds in eastern North 

 America from northern Minnesota, central Ontario and Newfoundland, 

 south to northern Louisiana and Georgia. In New York it is generally 

 distributed throughout all parts of the State excepting the spruce and 

 balsam belt, or the Canadian zone of the Catskills and Adirondacks. 

 Bicknell found it uncommon in the valleys of the Catskills. It certainly 

 is uncommon even in Keene valley and about Old Forge, but a few invade 

 the cleared land and valleys of the Adirondack country up to the edge of 

 the coniferous woods, where it is replaced by the Red-breasted nuthatch. 

 It is a resident in other parts of the State and breeds in nearly every county, 

 being somewhat less common in the northern portion, but generally dis- 

 tributed throughout the Alleghanian life zone. This is one of our few 

 species that exhibit scarcely any tendency to migrate. 



Haunts and habits. The haunts of the White-breasted nuthatch 

 are orchards, shade trees, groves and forests. He is found on the trunks 

 and larger limbs of trees, almost never alighting on the twigs and smaller 

 branches. He occasionally alights upon the ground in pursuit of insects 

 or food which he has dropped from the tree. The nuthatch is famous 

 among our birds as an acrobat, being our only species of creeping birds 

 which climbs about a tree up or down or around, and seems to prefer to 

 hang with his head down and tilted outward when examining intruders. 

 As he hops nimbly from ridge to ridge of the bark on the trunk of the tree 

 he usually keeps up a contented hank, hank or onk, onk, which is frequently 

 answered by his mate from some neighboring tree in slightly higher key 

 as if to assure him that the company is still together. He also has a note 

 consisting of the onk, onk, onk many times repeated, a kind of a rolling 

 call. This is undoubtedly his love song as it is heard in February, March 

 and April as the nesting season advances. Early in spring he occasionally 

 utters a whistled note, chee-o. 



The nuthatch remains throughout the fall and winter in little companies 



