Nuthatches are small, agile birds known for navigating tree trunks. Their unique climbing techniques allow access to various food sources. Their diet is diverse, adapting to seasonal changes, crucial for survival and raising young.
What Nuthatches Primarily Eat
Nuthatches consume a varied diet of invertebrates, seeds, and nuts. During warmer months, their diet heavily features insects, which provide essential protein. This includes weevil larvae, wood-boring beetle larvae, gypsy moth caterpillars, ants, gall fly larvae, tree hoppers, scale insects, stinkbugs, click beetles, and spiders. These protein-rich foods are important during breeding season for nestling growth.
As insect availability decreases, nuthatches shift their focus to seeds and nuts. They consume various tree seeds, including pine, spruce, and other conifers. They also eat nuts like acorns, hawthorn, hickory nuts, hazelnuts, and beechnuts. They process harder food items by wedging them into bark crevices and striking them with their strong bills to open them.
How Nuthatches Find and Consume Food
Nuthatches have distinctive foraging behaviors. Unlike many birds, they uniquely climb headfirst down tree trunks and branches. This descent provides a different perspective, enabling discovery of insects and seeds hidden in bark crevices, often overlooked by birds climbing upwards. Strong toes and specialized claws provide the necessary grip for these acrobatic movements.
They meticulously probe and glean food items from the surface and fissures of tree bark. This includes extracting insects and larvae from under loose bark. For larger food items like nuts or substantial seeds, nuthatches often wedge them securely into a bark crevice or another surface, then use their robust bills to chip away at the shell or outer layer. This method, sometimes referred to as “nut-hacking,” is thought to be the origin of their common name.
Nuthatches also exhibit caching behavior, storing food for later. They tuck individual seeds or insects into hiding spots, such as under loose bark. Caches are often covered with bark, lichen, moss, or snow for concealment. This helps maintain a consistent food supply, especially when food is less abundant.
Seasonal Diet Shifts and Supplemental Feeding
A nuthatch’s diet naturally varies with the seasons, based on food availability. During spring and summer, when insects are plentiful, their diet heavily features protein-rich invertebrates, crucial for feeding young. As fall and winter approach, insect populations decline, leading nuthatches to rely more on seeds and nuts. For some species, seeds can exceed 60-70% of their winter diet.
Supplemental feeding can influence their diet, especially during colder months. Nuthatches are regular visitors to bird feeders and readily consume black oil sunflower seeds, popular for their high oil content. They also enjoy suet, as cakes or pellets, and shelled or unsalted peanuts. Occasionally, they may accept mealworms, live or dried, and peanut butter on tree limbs. These foods provide energy and nutrients, helping nuthatches endure periods of food scarcity.