Eurasian Nuthatch

How to recognise it

• Blue-grey upperparts and white underparts with a faint rusty-yellow wash on breast and belly
• Black stripe through the eye and rust-red rear flanks
• Female has paler upperparts, browner eye stripe and duller flanks than the male
• Climbs down trees head first and does not prop itself on its tail

Call and song

The Eurasian Nuthatch is very loud and is usually noticed first by its call. The usual call is a high, sharp "dwip", mostly given twice and more times when excited. The song is a loud series of whistles, a slow "pii-pii-pii" with many variants, including a faster one.

Where and when

The Eurasian Nuthatch is a resident bird in Sweden and is reported from all 21 counties. It is reported most in November to February. In 2018 the Swedish population was estimated at 264 000 pairs, and the species is not red-listed in the Swedish Red List 2025. When cone crops are poor, Siberian nuthatches can move west to northern Sweden in autumn and sometimes stay to breed.

Food and behaviour

It moves through trees in short hops and searches bark crevices for insects. In autumn it also eats grain, oily seeds, nuts and acorns, and often roams with tits and treecreepers. Nuts and large insects are wedged into bark crevices and hammered apart with the strong bill. For winter it stores food in several places, for example in hollow trees and crevices.