Episode Number
75
Episode Show Notes / Description
Red-breasted nuthatch (Sitta canadensis).
The honorary “winter finch” with a high-pitched honk.
Do you want to learn more bird songs, frog calls, and insect noises? Join Voice of the Wild every Friday to explore a new wild voice. We’re available on most podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
- Subscription links Here
- Subscribe to the Newsletter
- Listen online on our Homepage
The following Cornell Lab | Macaulay Library recordings were used in this episode:
- Red-breasted nuthatch call by Arnoud van den Berg (ML508298)
- Red-breasted nuthatch soft calls by Wil Hershberger (ML508300)
- White-breasted nuthatch call by William W. H. Gunn (ML508306)
- Red-breasted nuthatch tin horn song by William W. H. Gunn (ML508297)
Sources and more:
- https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-breasted_Nuthatch/
- https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/red-breasted-nuthatch
- Dobson, C., Kassenbaum, D., Oehmke, D., & Misewicz, M. (2023). Field guide to hotspots and birds in Illinois. Scissortail LLC.
- Peterson, R. T., & Peterson, V. M. (1980). A field guide to the birds: A completely new guide to all the birds of eastern and central North America (Fourth edition, completely revised and enlarged.). Houghton Mifflin Company.
- Sibley, D. (2016). Sibley birds East: Field guide to birds of eastern North America (2nd ed.). Alfred A. Knopf.
- Walton, R. K., & Lawson, R. W. (1989). Birding by Ear: Eastern/Central [Compact Disc]. On Eastern/Central birding by ear. Houghton Mifflin Co.
Transcript
This is Brodie with Illinois Extension and I’m here with a new “voice of the wild”
This bird is an honorary so-called “winter finch.” That’s because, like evening grosbeaks, crossbills, and siskens, their population, which typically stays in the candian north, occasionally irrupts across the united states in search of food. They’re only an honorary winter finch because they aren’t a finch at all, they’re a nuthatch; the red breasted nuthatch.
LIke the more common white breasted nuthatch, the red breasted tends to forage for food along tree trunks, spiraling down and across the bark searching for insects and seeds. both have a honk for a call, though the red breasted’s honk is much higher in pitch; its described by my old peterson guide as sounding like a tiny tin horn. Here’s the red breasted nuthatch again.
Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for today’s sound. Learn more about voice of the wild at go.illinois.edu/VOW
This bird is an honorary so-called “winter finch.” That’s because, like evening grosbeaks, crossbills, and siskens, their population, which typically stays in the candian north, occasionally irrupts across the united states in search of food. They’re only an honorary winter finch because they aren’t a finch at all, they’re a nuthatch; the red breasted nuthatch.
LIke the more common white breasted nuthatch, the red breasted tends to forage for food along tree trunks, spiraling down and across the bark searching for insects and seeds. both have a honk for a call, though the red breasted’s honk is much higher in pitch; its described by my old peterson guide as sounding like a tiny tin horn. Here’s the red breasted nuthatch again.
Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for today’s sound. Learn more about voice of the wild at go.illinois.edu/VOW