Sittidae: Nuthatches

Brown-headed Nuthatch.  © Matthew Plante

Nuthatches are plump songbirds with sharp-tipped bills that make their living probing the bark or tree-trunks and large branches on the hunt for insects and larvae.  The family is relatively small and uniform in appearance and habits.  Among bark specialists, nuthatches are noted for their tendency to start high on the trunk and work toward the ground, tail up and head down.  Most species are Eurasian, where the family is most diverse in appearances, habitat preferences, and climatic tolerances, occurring from tropical rain forests up to the taiga and upper elevations of the Himalayan uplift, and on barren, rocky slopes (i.e., the rock-nuthatches).  A small group of species inhabits North America, where they are familiar attendees of backyard bird feeders.

Taxonomy

The species-level classification of the Sittidae is most stable and settled, although the small North American contingent presents two exceptions.  In 2021, most taxonomic authorities recognized the Bahama Nuthatch (Sitta insularis) as distinct from the visually identical Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta pusilla), based on substantial differences in their voices—although this recognition appears to have been posthumous for the Bahama Nuthatch, diminished over decades of decline, then any late remnants were likely annihilated by a catastrophic hurricane in 2019.  The widespread, familiar White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis), which occurs essentially throughout the continental U.S. and in parts of Canada and Mexico, comprises three vocally distinguishable forms that are candidates for recognition as separate species.  With the status of the White-breasted group unsettled, the family comprises 29 to 31 species (likely minus one very recently extinct).

White-cheeked Nuthatch (Sitta leucopsis)

Przevalski’s Nuthatch (Sitta przewalskii)

Giant Nuthatch (Sitta magna)

White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)

“Carolina Nuthatch” (S. c. carolinensis)

“Slender-billed Nuthatch” (S. c. aculeata)

“Cordilleran Nuthatch” (S. c. lagunae)

Beautiful Nuthatch (Sitta formosa)

Western Rock-Nuthatch (Sitta neumayer)

Eastern Rock-Nuthatch (Sitta tephronota)

White-tailed Nuthatch (Sitta himalayensis)

White-browed Nuthatch (Sitta victoriae)

Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta europaea)

Siberian Nuthatch (Sitta arctica)

Kashmir Nuthatch (Sitta cashmirensis)

Indian Nuthatch (Sitta castanea)

Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch (Sitta cinnamoventris)

Chestnut-vented Nuthatch (Sitta nagaensis)

Burmese Nuthatch (Sitta neglecta)

Blue Nuthatch (Sitta azurea)

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch (Sitta frontalis)

Yellow-billed Nuthatch (Sitta solangiae)

Sulphur-billed Nuthatch (Sitta oenochlamys)

Pygmy Nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea)

Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta pusilla)

Bahama Nuthatch (Sitta insularis)

Yunnan Nuthatch (Sitta yunnanensis)

Algerian Nuthatch (Sitta ledanti)

Krüper’s Nuthatch (Sitta krueperi)

Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis)

Corsican Nuthatch (Sitta whiteheadi)

Chinese Nuthatch (Sitta villosa)

References

Boyd, J.H., 2018. Taxonomy in Flux: Certhioidea. http://jboyd.net/Taxo/List24.html. (Posted March 15, 2018. Accessed March 11, 2022.)

Harrap, S., and D. Quinn. 1995. Chickadees, Tits, Nuthatches & Treecreepers. Princeton University Press.

Roberson, D. 2021. Bird Families of the World: Nuthatches, Sittidae, http://creagrus.home.montereybay.com/nuthatches.html. (Posted February 15, 2021. Accessed March 11, 2022.)

Text © Russell Fraker / March 11, 2022