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Red-breasted nuthatch

Eastern Washington

Picture of a red-breasted nuthatch or Sitta canadensis foraging in shrubby undergrowth
Red-breasted nuthatch or Sitta canadensis
foraging in shrubby undergrowth

Red-breasted nuthatches like mature coniferous forests that surround the Columbia basin on the east slope of the Cascade Mountains, in the Okanogan extending east around Spokane, and the Blue Mountains. This bird feeds on insects and seeds, usually mixing in flocks of other small songbirds. Nuthatches are named for their behavior of wedging seeds in bark and pecking them open, hammering like woodpeckers. Compare to pygmy nuthatch and white-breasted nuthatch.

Red-breasted nuthatch or Sitta canadensis with a ponderosa pine seed
Red-breasted nuthatch
with a ponderosa pine seed

Picture of a red-breasted nuthatch or Sitta canadensis
Red-breasted nuthatch or Sitta canadensis