NUTHATCHES: ROCKY MOUNTAIN NUTHATCH 521 
are horny, acute, and barbed. Although chiefly insectivorous, they 
feed also on hard fruits, and are named from their habit of sticking nuts 
and seeds in cracks in bark and hammering till they break the shell 
(Coues). 
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NUTHATCH: Sitta carolinensis nelsoni Mearns 
Description. — Length: 5.9 inches, wing 3.7, tail 2.2. Bill large, convex. Adult 
male: Top of head and hind neck solid black (with greenish gloss) in striking co7itrast 
to white of sides of head; uppcrparts bluish gray, tail with all but middle feathers 
Photograph by G. It. Littleton 
Fig. 92. Young Rocky Mountain Nuthatches 
Not long from the nest but apparently enjoying their new home 
black, crossed by a broad subterminal band of white , broadest on outside feathers; 
wings bluish gray, with black and white markings; underparts grayish white, 
shaded with gray on sides and flanks , and tinged with rusty on flanks and lower 
belly. Adult female: Similar, but black of head veiled with grayish or bluish gray. 
Young: Similar to same sexes of adults but black of head and hindneck duller, edges 
of greater wing coverts and secondaries brownish. 
Range. —Breeds mainly in Transition Zone of interior from southern British 
Columbia, central Alberta, and western Manitoba south (between Rocky Moun¬ 
tains and Sierra Nevada and Cascades) to Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Sonora. 
State Records* —Throughout New Mexico, the Rocky Mountain Nuthatch 
is found in summer mainly from 7,000 to 8,000 feet. Few species are so strictly 
