Attracting Birds
How to Attract Nuthatches
A nuthatch is a bark specialist first and a feeder bird second. If mature trees are within sight of your yard you can have one in a fortnight. If they are not, no seed will fix it.
The short answer
- Mature trees are the requirement. Nuthatches forage on trunks and large limbs, so a yard with only shrubs and saplings rarely holds one.
- Suet and peanut halves outperform seed. Both match what a nuthatch does naturally: take one large item, wedge it in bark, hammer it open.
- An upside-down suet feeder suits nuthatches perfectly and shuts out starlings, which will not feed hanging backward.
- Put the feeder within about 15 feet (4.5 m) of a trunk. Nuthatches work in from the trees rather than crossing open lawn.
- Red-breasted Nuthatches are irruptive. Some winters they flood south into yards that never see one, and no feeder change explains it.
Nuthatches are attracted by habitat far more than by menu. They spend their day walking up, down and around tree trunks, so the honest first question is not what to put in your feeder but whether there is mature bark within sight of it.
If there is, the plan is short: a suet cake and a peanut feeder hung close to a trunk. The White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) typically turns up within one to three weeks, because it already lives in the trees you are looking at and simply has not had a reason to come lower.
This page covers the tree test, which nuthatch to expect where you live, the three foods that work and why, where to hang the feeder relative to the trunk, and what to do in an irruption winter when Red-breasted Nuthatches appear everywhere at once.
Start with the trees, not the feeder#
A nuthatch needs three things from a yard: large trunks and limbs to forage on, cavities to roost and nest in, and bark rough enough to wedge food into. Smooth-barked young ornamentals provide none of that.
The rough test: stand at your feeder location and look for trunks over about 10 inches (25 cm) in diameter within 100 feet (30 m). Oaks, maples, hickories, beech and pines all qualify. If you can see several, you are in business. If the nearest real tree is a block away, you may still get occasional visits, but you will not hold a pair.
Dead and dying wood matters more than most people expect, because that is where the cavities and the insects are. Leaving a safe standing snag or a dead limb, as described in snags, dead wood and leaf litter, is the single most useful thing a nuthatch-minded homeowner can do.
The gate, stated plainly
Feeders do not create nuthatch habitat. They intercept birds that are already working the trees nearby. Everything else on this page assumes you passed the tree test.
Which nuthatch you can expect#
| Species | Range | Preferred trees | At feeders |
|---|---|---|---|
| White-breasted Nuthatch | Most of the US and southern Canada | Deciduous, especially oak and maple | Year-round, reliably |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch | Canada, northern and western US, irruptive south in winter | Spruce, fir, pine | Winter, unpredictable |
| Brown-headed Nuthatch | Southeastern pine belt | Longleaf and loblolly pine | Locally common, in small groups |
| Pygmy Nuthatch | Interior West, mostly ponderosa pine | Pine | Locally common, noisy flocks |
Most yards east of the Rockies get the white-breasted as the resident and the Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) as an occasional winter bonus. The two southern and western species are tied so tightly to pine that the pine tells you whether to expect them.
The three foods that work#
Nuthatches handle food the way a bird with a chisel bill does: one large item at a time, carried to a trunk, jammed into a crack, and hammered. Foods that suit that method win.
| Food | Feeder | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| Suet | Upside-down or cage suet feeder | Highest fat per visit, no processing needed |
| Peanut halves and pieces | Mesh peanut feeder | Big single item, exactly what they cache |
| Black oil sunflower | Tube or hopper | Takes one seed, opens it in bark |
| Sunflower hearts | Tube | Same appeal, no wedging needed |
| Mealworms | Small dish | Taken in nesting season, expensive as a staple |
| Nyjer | Nyjer feeder | Ignored |
| Cracked corn and milo mixes | Any | Ignored |
Whole peanuts in the shell are for jays, not nuthatches. What you want is shelled peanuts, unsalted and unroasted, in halves or large pieces, offered in a mesh tube so the bird has to work them out one at a time.
Feeders for a bird that feeds head-down#
Nuthatches are the one common feeder bird that is genuinely comfortable upside down, and you can use that.
An upside-down suet feeder, where the cake faces the ground, is the best single purchase on this page. Nuthatches, chickadees and woodpeckers all feed from it without hesitation. European Starlings largely cannot, which turns a suet feeder from a starling magnet into a selective one. More options are compared in suet feeders, and the broader tactics are in keeping starlings off feeders.
A mesh peanut feeder is the second buy. Nuthatches cling to the mesh with no perch at all, and the mesh forces them to extract pieces slowly rather than carrying off a mouthful.
A tube feeder works but is not where nuthatches shine, because a short perch is awkward for a bird built to grip vertical surfaces.
Smear suet straight into the bark
Push soft suet or a suet and peanut butter mix into the crevices of a rough-barked trunk about 5 feet (1.5 m) up, or drill 1 inch (25 mm) holes in a hanging log and pack them. This is the presentation nuthatches accept fastest, and a DIY suet log costs nothing but a length of firewood.
Where to hang it#
Distance from the trunk is the placement variable that matters, and the answer is unusual: closer is better. Most feeder placement advice pushes you away from trees because of squirrels, but a nuthatch approaches from bark and works its way in.
Hang suet and peanut feeders within about 15 feet (4.5 m) of a mature trunk, and ideally mount at least one directly on a trunk at 5 to 6 feet (1.5 to 1.8 m). Accept that a trunk-mounted feeder is a squirrel feeder unless you deal with the squirrels separately, and see how to stop squirrels raiding feeders before you mount anything on a tree.
Height is flexible. Nuthatches forage from ground level to the canopy and will come to a feeder at 4 feet (1.2 m) or 15 feet (4.5 m) with equal willingness.
Irruption winters and the red-breasted surprise#
Some winters, Red-breasted Nuthatches appear far south of their normal range, in yards that have never hosted one. These irruptions follow failures in the conifer seed crop across the boreal forest: when spruce and fir cones fail, the birds move south in numbers.
They are unpredictable from year to year, they can arrive as early as August, and they often travel with Pine Siskins and other northern finches. There is nothing you can do to cause one. What you can do is be ready: keep suet and sunflower out from late summer onward, since an irruption that arrives in September finds many yards with empty feeders. The seasonal timing argument is in fall bird feeding.
Nesting behavior worth knowing#
White-breasted Nuthatches nest in natural cavities and old woodpecker holes, and both common species do something odd around the entrance. Red-breasted Nuthatches smear conifer resin around the hole, apparently as a deterrent to predators or competitors, and fly straight in without touching it. White-breasted Nuthatches sweep the bark around the entrance with a crushed insect held in the bill, which is thought to work as a chemical deterrent, though the evidence is not settled.
They will take a nest box with a 1 1/4 inch (32 mm) hole, but far less readily than chickadees do. Retaining dead wood beats buying a box.
Do not seal or "clean up" cavity trees
A hollow limb or an old woodpecker hole is worth more to a nuthatch than anything you can hang. If a dead limb is not over a path, a driveway or a roof, leave it standing.
A four-week plan#
- Week 1. Hang a suet cage on or within 15 feet (4.5 m) of your largest tree. Use plain rendered suet or a suet and peanut cake. Nothing with dyed fruit.
- Week 2. Add a mesh peanut feeder about 10 feet (3 m) away, at a similar height. Two offerings in different spots roughly doubles your interception odds.
- Week 3. If chickadees are visiting but no nuthatch is, push one offering closer to the trunk and check that squirrels are not clearing the suet overnight.
- Week 4. Still nothing? Walk your block and look for trunks over 10 inches (25 cm). A nuthatch-free yard in a nuthatch-free neighborhood is a habitat outcome, not a feeder problem, and the honest answer is to plant a tree and wait a decade.
Frequently asked questions#
What food attracts nuthatches the fastest?
Suet and peanuts. A plain suet cake in a wire cage usually brings a White-breasted Nuthatch within one to three weeks where the birds are present, and shelled peanut halves in a mesh feeder work just as well. Black oil sunflower is a solid third: nuthatches take single seeds and wedge them into bark to open them.
Why do nuthatches walk down trees head-first?
It gives them a different view of the bark than woodpeckers and creepers, which work upward. Coming down head-first, a nuthatch spots insects and spiders tucked into the upper edges of bark scales that upward-facing birds miss. It is the reason nuthatches and creepers can share the same trunk without competing much.
Will nuthatches come to a yard with no big trees?
Rarely, and usually only as brief visitors from a wooded lot nearby. Nuthatches feed on trunks and heavy limbs and nest in cavities, so a neighborhood of lawns and young ornamentals does not support them. If there is mature woodland within a few hundred yards, a suet feeder can still pull them across.
What is the difference between a White-breasted and a Red-breasted Nuthatch?
Size and face pattern. The White-breasted Nuthatch is larger, plain white on the face with no eye stripe, and prefers deciduous trees. The Red-breasted Nuthatch is small, has a black line through the eye with a white eyebrow above it, shows rusty underparts, and favors conifers. Their calls differ too: a nasal yank versus a tinny toy horn.
Do nuthatches use nest boxes?
White-breasted Nuthatches occasionally will, with an entrance hole around 1 1/4 inches (32 mm) and a floor near 4 by 4 inches (10 by 10 cm). They take boxes far less often than chickadees do, because they prefer natural cavities and old woodpecker holes. Leaving a dead limb standing does more for them than any box.
How do I stop starlings taking the suet meant for nuthatches?
Use an upside-down suet feeder, where the cake is only reachable from below. Nuthatches, chickadees and woodpeckers all feed comfortably hanging backward and starlings mostly cannot. A cage with an outer grid also works, since it lets small birds in and keeps larger ones out.