White-breasted Nuthatch

The warm spell continues, so I decided to go for an April-like walk in the nearby national forest at Vedauwoo. It was a very quiet day; my main man and I didn't encounter any other people until we were nearly back at the parking lot at the end of our hike. We didn't see any large wildlife, either, only some moose droppings that suggested that the moose cow and yearling I have seen twice before were still in the area.

I did see and hear some birdlife, though, including ravens, chickadees and the agile white-breasted nuthatch, Sitta carolinensis.  This bird can often be seen upside down, creeping down the side of a tree or even hanging from the underside of a branch.  They exhibit similar behavior to red-breasted nuthatches, but have different, lighter coloring.

The white-breasted nuthatch is a non-migratory year-round Wyoming resident.  I have occasionally seen this species in town, as well at in the pine/aspen forest.

I don't know this bird well enough to form a definite opinion of his personality (I've only seen this species occasionally, and usually for a very short period of time), but I like the description by Winsor Marrett Tyler published in the 1948 Smithsonian Bulletin:  "The white-breasted nuthatch is a droll, earnest little bird, rather sedate and unemotional. He is no great musician and seems to lack a sense of humor. He has none of the irrepressible fidgetiness of the house wren, none of the charming happiness of the song sparrow; he appears to take life on a matter-of-fact level. He is short-necked, broad-shouldered, sturdy, quick and sure in his motions, suggesting an athlete, and as we study him on his daily round, as he hops up and down over the bark, we see that he is an athlete with marked skill as an acrobat, like the tumbling kind, as much at home upside down as right side up."

Winsor Marrett Tyler, by the way, was a Massachusetts doctor with a great interest in birds.  He also reportedly read Shakespeare for fun each winter -- my kind of guy.