Nuthatches | Sittidae

Boomklevers | Trepadores

Small, compact birds with a large head, a short neck and a short, square-cut tail, and with a long, straight, pointed bill that is driven into bark crevices like a chisel. The legs are short and stout and carry long, strongly curved claws; with these they climb down a trunk head first as easily as up, without using the tail as a prop. In Mexico and Central America the family is small and confined to Mexico: White-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatch live in the pine and oak forests of the mountains, and Red-breasted Nuthatch is a scarce and irregular winter visitor in the north. They forage on trunks and branches, prising insects and spiders from crevices, and also eat seeds, which they wedge in a crack in the bark, hack open with the bill and store away. All species nest in a tree hole; Red-breasted Nuthatch smears resin around the entrance. Pygmy Nuthatch lives in small groups all year, roosts with many birds together in a single hole and is often helped at the nest by other adults. The voice consists of simple, repeated, rather nasal notes and quick piping series.