Red-Breasted Nuthatch

A small, compact nuthatch with a blue-grey back, rusty underparts and a bold black eye stripe, often detected first by its nasal, tin-horn call from within coniferous forest. It forages by creeping head-first down tree trunks and branches, wedging seeds into bark crevices to hammer them open, and readily visits feeders stocked with sunflower seed or suet. Look for it year-round in spruce and pine forest, with irruptive movements into more southerly areas in years when cone crops fail further north.