Conservation and Management

Effect Of Human Activity

Forestry practices that include removal of old, dead trees could reduce nuthatch densities by eliminating cavity sites. Therefore, it is important to leave old trees with natural cavities and old woodpecker holes to maintain nuthatch populations, especially in fragmented forests.

In fragmented Canadian deciduous forest, this species’ presence in 2.5 x 2.5-km plots was not related to % forest cover, total forest/non-forest edge, number of forest fragments, or mean distance to nearest neighboring fragment (Villard et al. 1999).

Although found in very small woodlots in the American Midwest, nuthatch annual survivorship is sensitive to forest patch size, in one study, running from about 35% in 5-ha sites to 65% in 35-ha sites (Doherty and Grubb 2002). A significant cause of mortality in small woodlots could be reduction in usable space for foraging in winter due to wind-chill effects. In colder wind chills, nuthatches foraged farther from windward edge and closer to leeward edge of woodlots. In very small woodlots, this response confined foraging activity to the leeward margins and could have resulted in fatal reduction of food supply there (Dolby and Grubb 1999a). Uncertainty whether response directly to wind-chill or as satellite flock member following less cold-hardy chickadees and titmice (see Behavior: social and interspecific).

In addition to their area, the configuration of patches is likely important. An Ohio study found that nuthatches tended to cross open agricultural fields between woodlots only if such gaps were less than 200 m. Thus, it seems possible that a pair of nuthatches could maintain a breeding territory by commuting among several small woodlots only if such habitat patches were sufficiently close together, perhaps separated by less than 200 m. Grubb and Doherty (1999) model such an effect.

During both breeding season and fall migration season, this species was more abundant in reference plots than in plots next to an extremely low frequency (ELF) radio antenna. As most other bird species did not show such variation, the difference for the nuthatch was explained by the species’ tendency to be less abundant near forest edge (Hanowski et al. 1993).

In an aviary study, no apparent short-term effects of wearing up to five colored plastic leg bands, but no data on longer-term responses, e.g., nutritional condition, survivorship (Weiss and Cristol 1999).

In deciduous forest, shown to be less detectable during winter point-count surveys if researchers wore red/orange clothing rather than gray clothing, a result in line with the idea that species without red/orange coloration behave less visibly in response to those colors than species with red-orange plumage. Lack of difference in summer thought caused by obscuring effect of foliage on red/orange versus gray distinction (Riffell and Riffell 2002).

Management

Neither Endangered nor Threatened in any part of its range. No management tailored to this species. Studies of forest management practices in relation to this species would be of interest.