White-breasted nuthatch
| White-breasted nuthatch | |
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| Adult male S. c. carolinensis in Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Sittidae |
| Genus: | Sitta |
| Species: | S. carolinensis |
| Binomial name | |
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Sitta carolinensis Latham, 1790 |
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| Approximate year-round range | |
The white-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) is a small songbird of the nuthatch family which breeds in old-growth woodland across much of temperate North America. It is a stocky bird, with a large head, short tail, powerful bill, and strong feet. The upperparts are pale blue-gray, and the face and underparts are white. It has a black cap and a chestnut lower belly. The nine subspecies differ mainly in the color of the body plumage.
Like other nuthatches, the white-breasted nuthatch forages for insects on trunks and branches and is able to move head-first down trees. Seeds form a substantial part of its winter diet, as do acorns and hickory nuts that were stored by the bird in the fall. The nest is in a hole in a tree, and the breeding pair may smear insects around the entrance as a deterrent to squirrels. Adults and young may be killed by hawks, owls, and snakes, and forest clearance may lead to local habitat loss, but this is a common species with no major conservation concerns over most of its range.
The nuthatches are a genus, Sitta, of small passerine birds which derive their English name from the propensity of some species to wedge large insects or seeds into cracks, and then hack at them with their strong bills.Sitta is derived from sittē, the Ancient Greek for nuthatch, and carolinensis means "of Carolina" in Latin. The white-breasted nuthatch was first described by English ornithologist John Latham in his 1790 work, the Index Ornithologicus.
Nuthatch taxonomy is complex, with geographically separated species sometimes closely resembling each other. The white-breasted nuthatch has an appearance and contact call similar to those of the white-cheeked nuthatch, Sitta leucopsis, of the Himalayas and was formerly considered to be conspecific with it. A study published in 2012 showed that four distinct lineages were genetically isolated from each other and could represent different species, recognizable by morphology and song. A molecular phylogeny published in 2014 and including all main species' lineages within nuthatches concluded that the white-breasted nuthatch was more closely related to the giant nuthatch (S. magna) than to S. przewalskii, formerly regarded as possibly conspecific with it; S. przewalskii turned out to be basal in the family.
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