What is your favorite bird?  It's hard to pick just one, but if you like cute, easy-to-spot and even friendly, then nuthatches are a good choice!  We are lucky to have three types of nuthatches here in Georgia. Two are full time residents in most of our state - the Brown-headed and the White-breasted Nuthatch, while the third species - the Red-breasted Nuthatch, is mostly a winter visitor. Numbers of this species vary from year to year - sometimes we have very few, while in other years they seem to be everywhere!

Nuthatches are small birds, but they have very strong bills and feet.  They are often seen moving head-first down tree trunks as they search the bark for beetles and grubs. Nuthatches will also visit bird feeders for sunflower and safflower seeds, along with peanuts and suet.  They will take one seed or nut from the feeder to a tree branch, where they will peck it open with their sturdy bill.  Sometimes nuthatches will cache food in a tree crevice and come back to feed on it later, if the squirrels don't find it first!

Nuthatches are very curious and can be quite tame.  They often come in very close when we're filling our feeders, even landing on our shoulders briefly!  Some people have been successful getting nuthatches to feed from their hand.