Appearance
5-6 inches in size. Blue-grey above with face and underside white, the belly having a brownish look. The male has a black crown while the female has a grey crown and nape of neck. They are chunky birds with short legs that have long toes with turned-down claws to dig into the bark of trees that they creep down, usually head first. The bill is slender, but stubby. They dart around quickly and erratically.
Food
Nuthatches eat insects, eggs and larvae that they find under tree bark as well as fruits, seeds and nuts like acorns and hickory nuts that they find in the winter months. | 
White-breasted Nuthatch |
Habits and Breeding
Habitat is decidious and mixed forest. The common nuthatch found in the east, it may join with chickadees in the winter to form mixed flocks, but they will stay in a certain territory. They are usually seen in pairs, seemingly mated, all year long.
The eggs, 5-10 of them, are white with red-brown speckles. The nest is a cup of twigs and grass lined with feathers and hair in a cavity or box. Fur may be stuffed into crevices right by the entrance. The eggs are incubated by both parents for 12 days and the young fledge in 14 days.
Book of North American Birds and National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds.
Appearance
At 4 ½ - 4 3/4 inches the Red-breasted Nuthatch is smaller than a sparrow. The male is blue-grey above and a rusty color below. There is a black crown with a black line going through the eye. The eyebrow area between the cap and the line is white. The female is similarly colored, but her crown is grey.
Food
In the winter, the Red-breasted nuthatch primarily eats conifer seeds and a shortage of these may send them migrating. At other times of the year, they look for small insects on the smaller braches of the trees where the White-breasteds also feed. They will visit suet feeders more often than white-breasteds will. | 
Red-breasted Nuthatch |
Habits and Breeding
The habitat of the Red-breasted Nuthatch is coniferous forest In winter time they are more common than the White-breasted.
The female lays 5-6 white, red-brown spotted eggs in a cup-shaped nest of twigs with a soft lining. The nest is placed in a cavity or a box and the entrance will often have pine pitch smeared around it. Both adults incubate the eggs for 12 days and the young leave the nest at 18-21 days.
Book of North American Birds and National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds.
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