Nuthatch Question? (pics included)

[hanson]

Any of you avid birders seen a red-breasted nuthatch (or similar??)?? Sorry, can't quite remember what dad called it.

I was visiting the parents this weekend and I have never seen this bird before. It looked like a nuthatch though much smaller and a slight reddish tint on its breast. This was in NW MN. We (the family & parents) have been feeding birds for years and this is probably the first time we've seen this bird.

Just curious... Lots of other birds at the feeders but this one definitely stuck out to me.

[Steve Foss]

White-breasted nuthatches are the most common nuthatch in most of Minnesota, but the smaller red-breasted is quite common in the northeastern part of the state, and many are seen all across northern Minnesota, fewer the farther west you go but still in some numbers. Most winters growing up in Grand Forks, N.D., I'd see at least one or two a year. TRF birders will consider them fairly common, because TRF isn't quite on the NW Minnesota Prairie yet, which is where the species really starts to thin out.

Here are a couple from my archives to help with ID.

white-breasted

red-breasted

[hanson]

Thanks ST.

That is definitely the bird I saw. Of course Crookston is halfway between TRF & GF so that must be borderline territory for them. All I've ever seen up there is the "regular" Nuthatch, same with the parents unless they are becoming a little more versed in bird identification, which I know they are.

[Steve Foss]

Red-breasteds, like white-breasteds, thrive in woods. WBs seem OK out along wooded areas in the prairie more than RBs. RBs are most commonly seen in areas to the west of their primary range along wooded creeks and rivers, of which Crookston has its share.

If you aren't a big birder but want to have a table-top book that is a good birding reference, get the Sibley Guide to Birds, published by the National Audubon Society. It's too big to stick in a coat pocket for the field birder, but is perfect for the table or the truck, and is the best birding guide to come out in 20 years. You'll find it at any major bookseller, or on Amazon online.

Hmmm, if the parentals are getting into birds, wouldn't be a bad thing to put under their Christmas tree, either.

[buzzsaw]

I had one red breasted in my backyard this summer, I live in Lakeville.

[Dotch]

They are occasional visitors here in the south central part of the state. Sometimes they stay around for a week or so like this spring and sometimes they just happen by as tends to be their habit here in the winter. Bugtussle is 13 miles south of Waseca but we live in between Bugtussle and Mayberry, which is off of I-35.

[Mutty]

We had many red-breasted nuthatch at the feeders last year in the Crosslake area. This year, I have not seen any. I have not spent as much time there this year as last, so I bet they are around.

[buzzsaw]

Heres one from today.... they are the acrobats of the bird world!