White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) [XC350818]
by Ted Floyd from Santa Ana River Valley, San Bernardino Mountains, United States (call, song)
White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) [XC687221]
by Richard E. Webster from Escanaba, Delta County, Michigan, United States (wind in the trees rattling dry leaves and water noise from the nearby river., ad)
Nest
A hole in a tree, often lined with bark chippings and softer meterials.
Subspecies
Relationships uncertain. Bears a superficial resemblance to White-cheeked Nuthatch (Sitta leucopsis) and Przevalski's Nuthatch (Sitta przewalskii) and sometimes placed in the superspecies formed by those two, although some authors doubt such a close relationship. Recent studies of mitochondrial DNA, while not addressing this problem, suggest that present species is close to White-tailed Nuthatch (Sitta himalayensis) and Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta europaea). Geographical variation relatively slight and largely clinal, upperparts (and, to lesser extent, underparts) on average darkest in Rocky Mts and Mexico, becoming paler towards western and especially eastern coasts. Subspecies alexandrae sometimes merged with tenuissima, and oberholseri with nelsoni. Population in north-east of range (eastern Canada and north-eastern USA) sometimes separated as subspecies cookei, with slightly paler back, and with most females pale-capped, but differences from nominate clinal and/or not constant. Proposed subspecies atkinsi from south-eastern USA (Tarpon Springs, in Florida) synonymized with nominate, and northern Mexican umbrosa (from Sierra Madre near Guadalupe y Calvo, in south-western Chihuahua) with mexicana.
The following 9 subspecies are recognised:
tenuissima Grinnell, 1918 - South-western Canada (southern British Columbia southern from Lillooet), and western USA in Cascades of eastern Washington and Oregon, western Montana, western Wyoming, Idaho, central and western Nevada, and eastern California (generally east of Sierra Nevada, south to Inyo County).
aculeata Cassin, 1856 - Western Washington, western Oregon and western California (Pacific lowlands west of Cascades, and crest of Sierra Nevada and mountains in south), and extreme north-western Mexico (Sierra de Juárez, in extreme northern Baja California).
alexandrae Grinnell, 1926 - Northern Baja California Norte (Sierra San Pedro Mártir).
lagunae Brewster, 1891 - Extreme southern Baja California (Sierra de San Lázaro).
nelsoni Mearns, 1902 - Rocky Mts from northern Montana south to eastern Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, western Colorado, Arizona (except south-western deserts), western New Mexico, extreme western Oklahoma and western Texas (Davis and Guadalupe mountains), and northern Mexico (north-eastern Sonora and extreme north-western Chihuahua).
carolinensis Latham, 1790 - Central and eastern Canada from central and southern Alberta (southern from Lesser Slave L), south-eastern Saskatchewan (southern and eastern from Prince Albert), southern Manitoba (southern from R Swan and Winnipeg) and extreme south-western and south-eastern Ontario east to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (including Prince Edward I and Cape Breton I), and southern in USA to Gulf Coast and central Florida (eastern from North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and eastern Texas).
oberholseri H. W. Brandt, 1938 - South-western Texas (Chisos Mts) and north-eastern Mexico (northern Sierra Madre Oriental south to western Nuevo León and, probably, interior south-western Tamaulipas.
mexicana Nelson & Palmer, TS, 1894 - Western, central and southern Mexico in Sierra Madre Occidental and associated ranges from south-eastern Sonora and central Chihuahua south to Jalisco Michoacán, Hidalgo, Puebla, and west-central Veracruz (Jalapa, Mt Citlaltepetl), and southern Sierra Madre Oriental from central Nuevo León (Gulf slope) and south-eastern Coahuila south to south-western Tamaulipas and eastern San Luis Potosí.
kinneari van Rossem, 1939 - Southern Mexico in Guerrero and Oaxaca (Sierra Madre del Sur).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet