Winter Nuthatch

Here is a  portrait of a White Breasted Nuthatch, this painting was inspired by this busy little  male  and  his cacheing . He would go to our feeder  take a seed then fly to the Walnut tree in our yard and jam the tasty prize into a crevasse in the trunk of the tree this is called "cacheing ", saving it for later.

Winter Nuthatch

You can tell this is a male because of his dark top on his crest. Females have a lighter blue gray. 

They are also called the up side down bird because they will move up and down on trees cacheing or when in season  looking for spiders, insects, and larva , in the cracks or crevasses of trees. Nuthatches are a winter residents of the midwest . I  like to put out Black oil  Sunflower seeds in my feeders,  because  the shell is thin and  the nut can be retrieved quickly. Not only Nuthatches come to our feeders I get a good variety of birds because the Black oil is a easy seed to  open . The only down fall to Black oil is the Squirrels love them  and will set there and eat them all at one sitting if you don't scare them away.