Brown-headed Nuthatch

This Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta pusilla) was part of a small troupe occupying pines in a park in Hickory, North Carolina. Shauna Weyrauch and I recently took a week to visit southern Georgia and a few points in between here and there. We went to this park on January 1 with the specific goal of drumming up some of the tiny nuthatches. The Brown-headed Nuthatch is a personal favorite. Shauna had never seen one and was understandably delighted by them.

Highly social, the little nuthatches stay in small bands, and there were about four of them in this group. They are vociferous and I heard them almost immediately upon exiting the vehicle. Brown-headed Nuthatches emit high squeaky notes, and it sounds like a group of kittens are in the pines playing with squeak toys.

Another major pine woods specialty bird target of this trip was the far rarer Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Dryobates borealis). I've seen them before, on a number of occasions, but it would be another "lifer" for Shauna, and we both wanted to experience the woodpeckers. No problem, we were able to spend about four hours over two mornings with a clan of five birds. We saw many interesting behaviors and interactions and managed some decent imagery. I'll post more on the Red-cockaded Woodpeckers later.