The January Zoom meeting of the St Lucie Audubon Society featured an outstanding program on the Brown-headed Nuthatch. As the speaker pointed out, St Lucie County is just south of the southern edge of the Brown-headed Nuthatch’s range which accounts for why we have never seen one in St Lucie County

. Back in the 1990’s when we would vacation in Florida and in the early 21st century after we became Snowbirds I often wondered why when searching wonderful appropriate pinelands habitat all along the Treasure Coast I never saw any Nuthatches of any kind. Simple answer – there weren’t any here. Brown-headed Nuthatches are the closest to St Lucie County when reaching the Southern edge of their range in Osceola County, northwest of Vero Beach, but White-breasted don’t extend into Florida at all, and Red-breasted barely reach Florida, and then only in the western part of the Florida Panhandle.

This discussion of the range of the Brown-headed Nuthatches explains why it was particularly exciting when on February 4th, 2019, on a St Lucie Audubon field trip to Joe Overstreet Road in Osceola County we discovered a small population of Brown-headed Nuthatches, undoubtedly at the very extreme southern edge of their range (top).

In all there were probably five different Brown-headed Nuthatches in the group, including this one (photo 2) which I suspect may have been a female or a juvenile because of the lighter colored head. We also saw another one in the typical upside-down position (photo 3, note the white spot on the back of the neck) on the tree trunk.

While these photos make the birds appear larger than they really are because the photos are severely cropped, these birds are all very small and difficult to locate as they blend in with their surroundings quite well. The SLAS January Zoom speaker made those of us on that field trip feel very gratified at finding this small group because of how scarce these birds are. Jewel and I did once, years ago, find a couple of Brown headed Nuthatches at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, but that was well before I was taking photographs of birds. (We may have been the only people among the large crowd at the Alligator Farm even remotely interested in looking for Brown-headed Nuthatches.)

Back in 2013 we also saw a few in the Everglades where a re-introduction program had been started in 1997, which has subsequently proved to be quite successful. (photos 4 and 5) We have also seen and photographed Brown-headed Nuthatches at the very northern edge of their range in Delaware. (photos 6 and 7)

Interestingly, both White-breasted Nuthatches and Red-breasted Nuthatches have much more extensive ranges and are much more common. Both species can regularly be found at bird feeders in their home ranges whereas I am not aware of Brown-headed Nuthatches being found at bird feeders. I suspect some Reader will probably prove me wrong on this. In any event all Nuthatches are quite interesting and fun to watch, although in Pennsylvania on our farm we do tend to take White-breasted Nuthatches for granted as they are always present at our feeders. Our Maine friends say the same about their summer Red-breasted Nuthatches.

The February SLAS Brown-headed Nuthatches program speaker pointed out that the species often stays in close-knit family units with young from previous years often helping to raise the current year’s offspring. Brown-headed Nuthatches are also unique in their use of tools, sometimes using a tough piece of bark to pry open other pieces of bark and even carrying a particularly good piece from tree to tree to use. I’m not sure whether the Nuthatches in photos 4 and 5 below are carrying a tool or some kind of food. Tiny little birds, the Brown-headed Nuthatches remain high in Pine Trees and are often difficult to find. Their call sounds like a squeaky toy.

Nuthatches are fun little birds, great to watch and hyper-active. If they were humans we would definitely regard them as type A personalities. You know, like those folk who just go-go-go all day long. I have always admired and even sometimes envied friends who have the ability to just keep going all the time, like Nuthatches, particularly now that I seem to certainly enjoy that afternoon nap. But then again, it does take all kind of folk to keep the world around us interesting, and it certainly would not be the same if everyone was hyper-active all day long like Nuthatches. Three cheers for those us who sometimes like to stop and smell the roses. And now it’s time for my nap.

For more about the reintroduction of Brown-headed Nuthatches in the Everglades, see: www.nps.gov/ever/learn/nature/brownheadednuthatch.htm.

For more information on Brown-headed Nuthatches, see:https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown-headed_Nuthatch/overview