Larch Creek Birds

What the birds (and frogs) are saying at a creek in western Washington
Plate 7
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Louis Agassiz Fuertes, N.Y. Forest, Fish and Game Commission report, 1901 · No restrictions
Bird

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Sitta canadensis
Nuthatches (Sittidae)
Year-round resident. Expected at the creek in every month.
Field marks
A small nuthatch with a blue-grey back, rusty underparts and a bold black eye stripe under a white eyebrow; walks head-first down trunks as if gravity were a rumour.
Male & female
The male has a black cap and brighter rust below; the female's cap is grey and her underparts paler.
Voice
A nasal, tin-horn 'yank-yank-yank', often in a slow series: the voice of a conifer forest, and of a very small clown car.
Diet
Insects and spiders from bark in summer; conifer seeds in winter, wedged into bark and hammered open.
Habitat
Conifer forest; the resident nuthatch of the Pacific Northwest.
Nesting
Excavates its own cavity in a soft snag and smears sticky pitch around the entrance to deter intruders, then flies straight in without touching the sides; 5–6 eggs.
Size
4½ in long, about a third of an ounce: a AAA battery with a built-in horn.

The second most-heard voice at the creek; a pair stays on its territory all year.

Season how expected it is here, week by week

50%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecheard at the creektoday
Fig. 1. BirdNET's range model for this location: the chance this species is present in each week of the year. Orange ticks mark weeks it has actually been heard at the creek; the dashed line is today.

At the creek 109 calls on 4 days, first Oct 28, last Oct 31

142900:00 — 0 calls001:00 — 0 calls02:00 — 0 calls03:00 — 0 calls304:00 — 0 calls05:00 — 0 calls06:00 — 0 calls607:00 — 2 calls08:00 — 7 calls09:00 — 29 calls910:00 — 22 calls11:00 — 13 calls12:00 — 2 calls1213:00 — 2 calls14:00 — 8 calls15:00 — 6 calls1516:00 — 15 calls17:00 — 3 calls18:00 — 0 calls1819:00 — 0 calls20:00 — 0 calls21:00 — 0 calls2122:00 — 0 calls23:00 — 0 callssunrisesunset
Fig. 2. When it calls: all detections by hour of day (today's sunrise and sunset shown).
2754Oct 2 — 0 callsOct 3 — 0 callsOct 3Oct 4 — 0 callsOct 5 — 0 callsOct 6 — 0 callsOct 7 — 0 callsOct 8 — 0 callsOct 9 — 0 callsOct 10 — 0 callsOct 10Oct 11 — 0 callsOct 12 — 0 callsOct 13 — 0 callsOct 14 — 0 callsOct 15 — 0 callsOct 16 — 0 callsOct 17 — 0 callsOct 17Oct 18 — 0 callsOct 19 — 0 callsOct 20 — 0 callsOct 21 — 0 callsOct 22 — 0 callsOct 23 — 0 callsOct 24 — 0 callsOct 24Oct 25 — 0 callsOct 26 — 0 callsOct 27 — 0 callsOct 28 — 5 callsOct 29 — 47 callsOct 30 — 3 callsOct 31 — 54 callsOct 31
Fig. 3. Calls per day over the last 30 days.

Recordings

Clearest recording · Oct 31 9:36 am · 100% sure
spectrogram
Recent · Oct 31 5:22 pm · 92% sure
spectrogram
Recent · Oct 31 3:55 pm · 88% sure
spectrogram
Recent · Oct 31 1:35 pm · 88% sure
spectrogram

From the encyclopedia

The red-breasted nuthatch is a small songbird. The adult has blue-grey upperparts with cinnamon underparts, a white throat and face with a black stripe through the eyes, a straight grey bill and a black crown. Its call, which has been likened to a tin trumpet, is high-pitched and nasal. It breeds in coniferous forests across Canada, Alaska and the northeastern and western United States. Though often a permanent resident, it regularly irrupts further south if its food supply fails. There are records of vagrants occurring as far south as the Gulf Coast and northern Mexico. It forages on the trunks and large branches of trees, often descending head first, sometimes catching insects in flight. It eats mainly insects and seeds, especially from conifers. It excavates its nest in dead wood, often close to the ground, smearing the entrance with pitch.
From Wikipedia, "Red-breasted nuthatch", CC BY-SA 4.0.