This week I saw a White-breasted Nuthatch dance. Never before in my long years of bird watching have I seen this. Have you seen a nuthatch dance?
The White-breasted Nuthatch, Sitta carolinensis, is a common visitor to our feeders. It especially likes the homemade suet cakes and the debris from the cakes falling on the tray below as Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers feed. This week I saw a White-breasted Nuthatch do a dance as it approached the feeding tray. I had never seen this remarkable behaviour before. So began a search for more information.
Sibley’s, National Geographic, Bent, Dunne and many more failed to enlighten me. ‘This is unique,’ I thought. I certainly had never seen it before.
Ahh, the Internet. It provided pertinent information including videos. The dancing nuthatches I saw there did not perform like mine but this is what they were doing: the bird was standing very tall with its tail tip touching the ground (downed horizontal tree in this case). The wings were widely spread and the bird weaved its body slowly and rhythmically back and forth as it moved delicately forward. It was an interesting sight which even drew my attention! [Reference: Youtube, Dance of the Nuthatch!]
What I saw was similar and abbreviated but just as beautiful. My dancer was moving slowly along the railing of the deck towards the feeding tray and did its dance for a metre distance as it approached. The bird’s body was not upright but held at about 30º to 45º and was slowly and rhythmically weaving back and forth. The wings were minimally held to the side. This dancer was moving its body from side to side at 45º to the forward line with the body still facing downward (not facing forward like in the video). It was doing wonderful footwork as it performed this repetitive motion. If there had been a way to view its tracks afterward, you would see a beautiful foot pattern. The body made a herringbone patten as it weaved its way to the target. When it got a couple of body lengths from the feeding tray it stopped, looked around as if to see if any bird was watching and then hopped onto the tray to feed. I was totally impressed, wishing it would do it again.
What more do we know about this? According to Birdipedia, the White-breasted Nuthatch is a monogamous species. Pairs form following courtship during which the male performs for the female. He bows to the female, spreads his tail and droops his wings and sways back and forth. He also feeds her.
This courting behaviour is only a small segment of what I saw and what is described as the ‘dance’. The beautiful manoeuvres I saw were performed for no other bird. The bird seemed to do it out of pure joy. It looked like he/it was celebrating the beautiful spring day, the breeding season and the fact that he probably had his female now sitting on the nest in the box they usually use along our hedgerow. I could actually feel his joy. I wish I had been able to video it in order to share it with you.
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