Hello ScienceWorks friends!

Your Bird of the Month for August is the delightful and charismatic White-breasted Nuthatch.

White-breasted Nuthatches are common across most of the U.S. They are most closely associated with oak woodlands in Southern Oregon, but are also found in other deciduous woods and mixed pine forests. They get their name from their habit of sticking seeds into cracks in bark and hacking them open with their hatchet-like beaks. They also pick bugs out of the bark, like the one shown here in the bottom right, with a beak full of tiny worms.

Nuthatches have big, strong feet and huge claws that allow them to descend straight down vertical tree trunks, like this happy little guy. These cute little acrobats can even forage upside-down!

They also use their strong feet for climbing around human-made structures like the 

sculptures at the Thalden Pavilion, the SciWrx play structures, and very possibly, your house.

This one stashed its seed in a crack at the top of the sculpture, then found an invertebrate egg case or pupa and proceeded to pull it apart and eat the contents.

The little bird above the “W” on the wall is a White-breasted Nuthatch, probably looking for spiders in the letters. The Western Bluebirds on the roof eventually chased it away.

Seeing these birds foraging around the museum infrastructure reminds me of the incredible adaptability and ingenuity of wild animals. Nuthatches are fun to watch and certainly seem aware and intelligent as they figure out how to gather and process their food. Look for them in just about any mixed woodland in the Rogue Valley, especially oak woodlands, and listen for their repetitive, nasal “YANK YANK YANK” calls in your neighborhood. If you’re lucky, you may just see one one playing on the ScienceWorks playground!

Happy Birding!

And don't forget to add your own bird sightings to the ScienceWorks eBird Hotspot!