A Mysterious Nutty Nuthatch

An unusual nuthatch was spotted at a well-known bird feeder in Fermeuse yesterday, May 6th 2025, by Vernon Buckle. 

Initial views revealed typical nuthatch behaviour, and a surprisingly white face. As soon as it was seen, it disappeared leaving a lot to the imagination. White-breasted Nuthatch (WBNU) was strongly suspected and the alert went out, including notifying the homeowner of the rare visitor. Afterall, this would be the 6th or 7th record for the province! A true rarity for the province, and one that many birders still haven't seen in the region.

Linda, the homeowner, eventually secured some photos later that day. That's where the mystery began. What was this nuthatch? An aberrant Red-breasted Nuthatch, or a White-breasted Nuthatch? Jean-François Rousseau (of Ivory Gull fame) was the first to point out the inconsistencies.

The bird continued to be seen today (May 7th) and several more photos came in. These only added to the mystery. What do you think this nuthatch is?


Linda Kenny - May 6th, 2025



Colin Peddle - May 7, 2025


John Brattey - May 7, 2025


Colin Peddle - May 7, 2025


Before reading any further, I encourage you to go to your favoured field guide and come to your own conclusion using the photos above. Then cover the face of the RBNU and WBNU in your field guide and compare the differences!


Initial impressions confirm an almost pure white face. In most circumstances this should rule out a Red-breasted Nuthatch (RBNU) as they should have a thick black eyeline from the bill to the nape. 

But some things aren't quite right for a WBNU. Importantly the "GISS" (General Impression Shape and Size) just don't sit well for WBNU. 

The back (mantle, scapulars, coverts) appear to be a smooth bluish gray with no signs of a wing bar. Importantly, there is no sign of black in the coverts or primaries as one would expect in a WBNU. Normally, the primaries on a WBNU are quite black with white edging whereas on a RBNU there is a smoother transition between the blue-gray back into the primaries. 

Structurally, check out the length of the primaries. In a WBNU they should be much longer than a RBNU, almost reaching to the tail tip. That's not the case in the Fermeuse Nuthatch.


John Brattey - May 7, 2025


Another thing to note is the bill length. Admittedly this can be quite variable and there's no difficulty in finding examples of nuthatches with aberrant bill lengths. This bird has a bill length that is on the short end - consistent with a Red-breasted Nuthatch:
John Brattey - May 7, 2025


One important distinction between a WBNU and RBNU is the size. The average mass of a WBNU is 21g (range 18 to 27), while that of the RBNU is 11 g (range 8 to 13) [Birds of the World]. Almost twice the size! Unfortunately, there aren't any typical RBNU's around to provide a direct comparison of its size but multiple observers have reported that the Fermeuse Nuthatch is smaller than they would expect for a WBNU. The following photo from Linda provides a reasonable comparison with the abundant American Goldfinches (average mass is 13g with a big range of up to 20g at times). The Fermeuse Nuthatch appears slightly smaller, and at most the same size. A WBNU should be larger. 

Linda Kenny - May 7, 2025


In this next photo with the bird in flight, we note the lack of white undertail coverts and lack of maroon patches in this area. Also note the lack of a white patch on the underside of the wings. All big strikes against a WBNU. That's three strikes actually!

Linda Kenny - May 7, 2025
Three big strikes against WBNU from this photo alone.


There's always something to learn and challenge us and this bird certainly did just that. A great reminder that we can't rely on just a couple photos or short observations when identifying out of range birds, even for a species like WBNU which should be fairly straightforward!

Challenges like this force us to look closer at the common birds.

The question now is, what is the identity of the Fermeuse Nutty Nuthatch?

Is it an aberrant Red-breasted Nuthatch, an aberrant White-breasted Nuthatch, or is it a hybrid? I'm pretty confident that a pure White-breasted Nuthatch can be ruled out by the structural differences (size and primary length). Ultimately, the face of the bird looks like a White-breasted, but the rest of the bird including the bill, the back, the primaries and the undersides all look to be within range of a Red-breasted Nuthatch.

At this time, the ID as an aberrant RBNU or hybrid RBNU x WBNU remains in dispute. As far as I can tell there has never been a record of a RBNU x WBNU, so I think it's fairly safe to label this one as an aberrant Red-breasted. Anyone have the Pyle guide handy? 


For the eBirders out there, I highly recommend including the "aberrant" tag to your photos of the Fermeuse Nuthatch so that others can easily find this notable record in the future.

If you have thoughts on the ID of this nuthatch, feel free to reach out to us or add a comment below. 

Linda Kenny - May 7, 2025

A big thank you to Linda, the homeowner, for being so welcoming to the birding community!

Check out this aberrant Red-breasted Nuthatch from Calgary in 2016:

R Painter - Dec 2016. See here.

Caroline Lambert - Nov 2016. See here. 


Not too dissimilar to the Fermeuse Nutter!


Comments

  1. Linda's Relaxing LairMay 26, 2025 at 11:15 AM

    Beautiful series of photos! Thank you so much for sharing, and warm greetings from Montreal!

    ReplyDelete

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