Nuthatch (species)

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nuthatch
Nuthatch (Sitta europaea)

Nuthatch ( Sitta europaea )

Systematics
Order : Passerines (Passeriformes)
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
Superfamily : Certhioidea
Family : Nuthatch (Sittidae)
Genre : Nuthatch ( sitta )
Type : nuthatch
Scientific name
Sitta europaea
Linnaeus , 1758

The Nuthatch ( Sitta europaea ), also nuthatch is a bird art from the family of Kleiber .

Nesting box with a glue sticky clay - photo taken after successful breeding

Surname

The name refers to the fact that the nuthatch covered the entrance of other birds' nesting holes, such as those of woodpeckers , with clay so that they could be used for themselves. The term "Kleiber" comes from Middle High German (from kleiben, "staple, fix, smear, spread, glue") and refer to craftsmen who made clay walls. To protect the cave from being accessed by martens or crows , the nuthatches “wall” the entrance to their breeding caves with a mixture of clay and saliva so that they can just pass through. The nuthatch is also called the “woodpecker tit” because its way of life and appearance are reminiscent of both birds - woodpeckers and titmice .

A nuthatch has just left the breeding cave, the entrance to which has been made smaller with clay

features

Detail of the head

The nuthatch reaches a body length of 12 to 14.5 centimeters. The body is stocky with a large head, a very short neck and a short tail. The beak is long, pointed and gray in color. The top of the plumage is blue-gray and the underside, depending on the subspecies, white to ocher or rust-red. There are large, white spots on the upper tail-coverts, which are always red-brown in color. The nuthatch has a black eye stripe. The cheeks and throat are white. The iris is black and the legs are orange-yellow.

voice

Excited calls

The nuthatch is very shouting and loud, so he is usually the first to be noticed by his voice. He has an extensive repertoire. When looking for food he makes a sharp and pointed contact call that sounds like "zit". When excited, he calls out the powerful, loud and somewhat like "twett" sounding warning call. This is often called in quick, short episodes with short pauses between several episodes.

singing

The singing consists of several loud stanzas of different types, which are performed from a raised seat guard. Usually there are slow sequences of the same whistling tones that can rise or fall a little, such as "wuih wuih wuih wuih ..." or "wiiü wiiü wiiü wiiü". Some variants of the stanzas can also sound fast, clear and trilling, for example like “wiwiwiwiwiwi”, or more slowly and more rhythmically, like “djüdjüDJÜ djüdjüDJÜ”.

Systematics

The nuthatch occurs in Europe in three subspecies:

  • S. e. europaea - the nominate form occurs in Fennoscandinavia . The sides of the trunk are rust beige, the chest and the middle of the abdomen are whitish, sometimes with a whitish forehead.
  • S. e. caesia - occurs in Central Europe . The underside is beige, males have intensely red-brown flanks.
  • S. e. asiatica - occurs in eastern Russia and Siberia , but also occurs occasionally in Finland . The underside is white, the upper side is lighter blue-gray. There is some white on the forehead and above the eye stripe. The subspecies is smaller, its beak thinner.

Behavior and reproduction

Young bird

The nuthatch is a resident bird and is so faithful to its location that ringed birds are almost exclusively found in the vicinity of their ringing location. Finds such as a bird 163 km away are an exception.

The nuthatch is nimble, lively and climbs jerkily and skillfully along trunks and branches. In contrast to the treecreeper and woodpeckers , it can climb upside down. He puts one foot forward and grabs the bark of the tree with the other. So he “walks” on the tree trunk, while woodpeckers and treecreepers support themselves with their tails and put both feet in front at the same time.

Egg of a nuthatch

Nuthatches lay out nest holes (tree hollows, nest boxes or old woodpecker burrows) with bits of bark, hair, grass and feathers. They lay five to nine milky white eggs with rust-red spots, which they incubate for 14 to 18 days from April to May. The nestlings are fed for about 24 days.

Distribution and existence

The nuthatch can run upside down down a tree trunk
Nuthatch, male in flight

The Eurasian nuthatch occurs in Europe , northwest Africa and Asia (with the exception of South and Southeast Asia ), i.e. from Great Britain to Japan, whereby the continental European subspecies inhabits larger trees in mixed deciduous forests , parks and gardens . About eight percent of the global population is at home in Germany, the total population is estimated by the IUCN at around 10 million animals and is considered "not endangered". In the German-speaking area the number of breeding pairs is quantified as follows: Austria with 300,000 to 500,000 breeding pairs, Switzerland with 70,000 to 120,000 breeding pairs and Germany with 730,000 to 950,000 breeding pairs.

food

The diet consists mainly of insects , insect eggs and larvae . Seeds, berries and nuts are added in autumn. The nuthatch jams larger prey in a crevice, hangs upside down over it and chisels bite-sized bites with its powerful beak. He also clamps larger nuts and acorns in suitable tree crevices in order to crack them with his powerful beak hammer. He puts on food supplies. Nuthatches also appear in loose societies with tits and, like them, like to eat food such as grain and dry fruits that are brought out by humans.

Nuthatch feeding in winter
( Show higher resolution version )

Bird of the year 2006

Because of its uniqueness and the close connection to forests with old trees, the Naturschutzbund Deutschland e. V. and BirdLife Austria named the nuthatch as Bird of the Year 2006 in Germany and Austria. This is also a plea for the protection of oak and beech forests.

literature

  • Roger T. Peterson, Guy Mountfort, Philip AD Hollom: The Birds of Europe. 15th, revised edition. Blackwell, 2002, ISBN 3-8263-8526-8 .
  • L. Svensson, PJ Grant, K. Mullarney, D. Zetterström: The new cosmos bird guide - All species of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Franckh-Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-440-07720-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. for example Jürgen Martin: The 'Ulmer Wundarznei'. Introduction - Text - Glossary on a monument to German specialist prose from the 15th century. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1991 (= Würzburg medical-historical research. Volume 52), ISBN 3-88479-801-4 (also medical dissertation Würzburg 1990), p. 143 ( stick , example: "ains fingers dick with laymm klayben").
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Fiedler, Olaf Geiter, Ulrich Köppen: Messages from the ringing centers. In: Vogelwarte. August 2012, p. 202.
  3. ↑ Hanna-Maria Zippelius: Climbing down the head of the Kleiber (Sitta europaea) . In: From the Zoological Institute of the University of Bonn . tape 24 , no. 1/2 , 1973, p. 48-50 .
  4. ↑ a b birds of the forest . In: Birds of our region . A6 020 07-07 (2). Atlas Publishing House.

Web links

Wiktionary: Kleiber  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Kleiber  - album with pictures, videos and audio files