This is bird note.

Have you noticed a sleek, stub-tailed bird pecking its way down a tree trunk?

It's probably a nut hatch.

It might remind you of a tiny woodpecker, but woodpeckers travel up the trunk leaning on their tails. Where did this bird

get a name like Nutt Hatch? Perhaps because this tiny songbird tucks insects, nuts, and seeds

under bark or in crevices of trees. Then it hacks the tidbits apart with repetitive strikes of its

beak, like using a hatchet.

Of the four nut hatch species living in the United States, the most common are the red-breasted

nut hatch, and the white-breasted nut hatch.

The nut hatch's insistent call matches its aggressiveness.

These tough little guys will challenge birds larger than themselves for food and territory.

Birds gathered around a feeder give way when a nut hatch is around.

And that business of working its way down a tree trunk?

It's a clever move because the nut hatch can spot and eat all the tasty morsels missed by the rest of the birds working their way up the tree.

Okay. the rest of the birds working their way up the tree. There's more to learn about nut hatches, and you can see photos, when you come to our website,

birdnote.org. I'm Mary McCann.