General

Brown-headed Nuthatch: Medium-sized nuthatch with gray upperparts, brown cap, small, white nape patch, dark eye-line, white face, and buff underparts. Wings and tail are gray. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Brown-headed Nuthatch: Found in southeastern United States, extending east from southeastern Oklahoma and eastern Texas across central Arkansas, Tennessee, and the Gulf Coast states, to southern Maryland and Delaware, Virginia, south to southern Florida; also found in the Bahamas on Grand Bahamas. Endemic to the pine ecosystems.

Breeding and Nesting

Brown-headed Nuthatch: Three to nine white eggs with red brown speckles are laid in a cavity nest made of soft bark shreds, wood chips, grass, wool, hair, and feathers, and built from 2 to 12 feet above the ground in a dead or live tree, bird box, stump, or old post. Female incubates eggs for about 14 days.

Foraging and Feeding

Brown-headed Nuthatch: Eats pine seeds, insects, and spiders. Forages over, around, and up and down branches, small twigs, and trunks, sometimes hanging upside down; caches seeds.

Readily Eats

Suet, Nuts, Sunflower

Vocalization

Brown-headed Nuthatch: Song is "pri-u, de-u, de-u", like a squeaky toy. Call is a squeaky "bit-bit-bit" or "dee-dee-dee."

Similar Species

Brown-headed Nuthatch: White-breasted Nuthatch is larger and has black cap. Red-breasted Nuthatch has black cap and eyestripe and rust-brown underparts.