• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Before Header

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Friends of Kananaskis Country

Enhance, protect and share the unique natural and cultural experiences of Kananaskis Country through public participation and environmental education.

Header Right

Donate Join Us Volunteer-Events Calendar
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Vision and Mission
    • The Team
    • The Advisory Council
    • Thanks Volunteers
  • About K-Country
    • Kananaskis Country
    • Trail Maps
    • Trail Reports
    • Bite-Sized Advice
    • Trail & Camping Info
    • Kananaskis Conservation Pass
    • Critters of K-Country
    • Flowers of K-Country
    • Plants of K-Country
    • Fungi of K-Country
  • Programs + Events
    • Trail Care
      • Recruiting Crew Leaders & Backcountry Crew
      • Migratory Birds and the Friends
    • Canmore Trail Alliance
    • Trails Fest
    • Environmental Education
    • Chandra Crawford Hut at CNC
  • Engage
    • Sign Up and Join Us
    • Volunteer
      • Volunteer Projects
    • Corporate & Group Trail Days
    • Trail Day – What to Bring & Expect
    • Volunteer Agreement, Release and Waiver of Liability Form
    • Trail Groups and Clubs
  • Library
    • Latest News
    • Annual Reports
    • Great Kananaskis Flood Book
    • Bylaws & Cooperating Agreement
    • Newsletter
      • 2020 Newsletter Archive
      • 2019 Newsletter Archive
      • 2018 Newsletter Archive
      • 2017 Newsletter Archive
      • 2016 Newsletter Archive
      • 2015 Newsletter Archive
      • 2014 Newsletter Archive
      • 2013 Newsletter Archive
      • 2012 Newsletter Archive
      • 1997 – 2008 Newsletter Archive
    • Policies
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Legacy Fund
      • Legacy Fund FAQs
    • Planned Giving
    • Trail Love Give Back
    • SkipTheDepot
    • Our Supporters
    • Thanks
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Vision and Mission
    • The Team
    • The Advisory Council
    • Thanks Volunteers
  • About K-Country
    • Kananaskis Country
    • Trail Maps
    • Trail Reports
    • Bite-Sized Advice
    • Trail & Camping Info
    • Kananaskis Conservation Pass
    • Critters of K-Country
    • Flowers of K-Country
    • Plants of K-Country
    • Fungi of K-Country
  • Programs + Events
    • Trail Care
      • Recruiting Crew Leaders & Backcountry Crew
      • Migratory Birds and the Friends
    • Canmore Trail Alliance
    • Trails Fest
    • Environmental Education
    • Chandra Crawford Hut at CNC
  • Engage
    • Sign Up and Join Us
    • Volunteer
      • Volunteer Projects
    • Corporate & Group Trail Days
    • Trail Day – What to Bring & Expect
    • Volunteer Agreement, Release and Waiver of Liability Form
    • Trail Groups and Clubs
  • Library
    • Latest News
    • Annual Reports
    • Great Kananaskis Flood Book
    • Bylaws & Cooperating Agreement
    • Newsletter
      • 2020 Newsletter Archive
      • 2019 Newsletter Archive
      • 2018 Newsletter Archive
      • 2017 Newsletter Archive
      • 2016 Newsletter Archive
      • 2015 Newsletter Archive
      • 2014 Newsletter Archive
      • 2013 Newsletter Archive
      • 2012 Newsletter Archive
      • 1997 – 2008 Newsletter Archive
    • Policies
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Legacy Fund
      • Legacy Fund FAQs
    • Planned Giving
    • Trail Love Give Back
    • SkipTheDepot
    • Our Supporters
    • Thanks
  • Contact

Red-Breasted Nuthatch

Red-Breasted Nuthatch

One of our favourite birds in K-Country is the Red Breasted Nuthatch, sitta canadensis. As subjects of photography, they’re a pain. Like a few birds, they do not hold still for so much as a second. Even though you see them all the time, it can take years to get good photos of them.

Their home is a cavity in a tree. Typically, it’s in an old woodpecker hole, like the one in the photo to the right, but they also make their own nests in rotten trees. They rim the entrance of their nest hole with conifer resin, protecting the nest from insects and such. They lay 5-6 eggs, which hatch in about 12 days, and the babies fledge ~20 days later.

Nuthatches are non-migratory, though they have been known to move north and south through their range. Accordingly, you can see them all year round, walking headfirst down tree trunks. Their favourite trees are White Spruce, Lodgepole Pines and Douglas Firs, which make up about 90% of the trees in K-Country. That “head first” thing is all about gaining seeds and insects out of tree bark that are missed by woodpeckers and Brown Creepers who move up a tree head first.

Their call is a distinctive “yank-yank-yank” that sounds like an overly fast and too quiet car alarm. You often hear nuthatches before you ever see them; sometimes you only ever hear them, as the tiny birds invisibly flit around up high.

Nuthatches are often gregarious, and hang out with chickadees all year ’round, and other forest birds like warblers and redpolls in the summer. They rarely sit still, though, and spend much more time on the tree trunks than on the limbs. They’re easy to get to visit your bird feeder. They are “peanut pigs”, and will root through your seeds if they know there are peanuts. Just don’t expect them to sit still for you; they zip in, grab a seed, and zip out, typically heading to a nearby tree to stash it in the bark.

Their cousins the White-Breasted Nuthatches are much less frequently seen in K-Country. Whites are slightly larger, and are white on the chest instead of red, and prefer leafy trees. They are, however, just as hard to get pictures of!

Meet some of the other fascinating Critters of Kananaskis Country here!

Footer

Contact Us

email: info@kananaskis.org
Phone: 403.678.5593
Mail Address:
Suite 201, 800 Railway Ave.
Canmore, Alberta
T1W 1P1

Search Website

You can also find us on

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter
Donate Join Us Volunteer Calendar

Copyright © 2023 · developed by Artmann Comm on Genesis Framework