Description

This aggressive male is the breeding male of his family group. He is part of a long-term study looking at the behavioral, social, and dispersal aspects of the Brown-headed Nuthatch at Tall Timbers Research Station in Tallahassee, Florida The population is color-banded, as can be seen on this individual. Each bird in the population has a unique combination of colored plastic and aluminum bands on their legs that allows researchers identify individuals from a distance, determine who is interacting with whom, and figure out which birds are where on the property. Brown-headed Nuthatches are cooperative breeders, a social system that allows the observation of a multitude of interesting behaviors. Young of previous nests often stick around and help their partents raise the chicks of subsequent nests. Birds are often observed allopreening, feeding one another, skirmishing, and just being plain-old cute.

Category

Week 4: Woodpeckers & Nuthatches

Species

• Brown-headed Nuthatch

Tags

• ecology
• pine
• perscribed
• fire
• hills
• timbers
• tall
• tallahassee
• research
• behavior
• headed
• brown
• Florida
• nuthatch
• Science
• red