Episode 93: White-Breasted Nuthatch – Voice of the Wild

White-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis). 

The nuthatch at your backyard feeder.  

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: 

• White-breasted Nuthatch call 1 by Wil Hershberger (ML508309)
• White-breasted Nuthatch song by Wil Hershberger (ML508307)
• White-breasted Nuthatch call 2 by Wil Hershberger (ML508308)
• Red-breasted Nuthatch call by Geoffrey A. Keller (ML508296)

 Sources and more: 

• https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-breasted_Nuthatch
• https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/white-breasted-nuthatch
• 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.

What is Voice of the Wild?

If you learn to listen for them, you will find wildlife everywhere. Voice of the Wild is a podcast about wildlife and the wild sounds they make. Tune in every Friday to learn a new bird song, frog call, or insect noise. Voice of the Wild is an AI-free podcast. Generative tools are not used to write, research, or edit any part of the show.

This is Brodie with Illinois Extension and I’m here with a new “voice of the wild”

A noisy and charismatic bird who’ll watch through beady black eyes as you refill your feeders, often craning their head back at an angle as they head down the trunk of the nearest tree. A few impatient honks later, and they’ll dart to the feeder to grab a sunflower seed which they’ll hatch open later. This is the white-breasted nuthatch.

Odds are good that a white breasted nuthatch at your winter feeder is the same that visits in the summer; once these birds pair up they’ll stay together and on their breeding territory pretty much year-round. Their blue-gray back and white breast may be common sights, but next time you get the chance take a close look at their plumage and note the modest dash of chestnut beneath the tail and on either side of their rear. The white-breasted has a lower “honk” than the closely related but harder to find red-breasted nuthatch. Here’s the white-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