[NatureNS] re behaviour of nesting WB Nuthatches

DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=fundymud.com; s=default;
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:43:04 -0300
From: Doug Linzey <doug@fundymud.com>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:17.0) Gecko/20130328 Thunderbird/17.0.5
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
References: <771ADD9D-4DD7-4216-9CCA-4FDF3E238303@eastlink.ca> <39BA001F-178F-47B0-868C-AA6A75957738@eastlink.ca> <69AAA976-C405-4E1D-BBDC-249E3C0C823E@dal.ca>
Precedence: bulk
Return-Path: <naturens-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>
Original-Recipient: rfc822;"| (cd /csuite/info/Environment/FNSN/MList; /csuite/lib/arch2html)"

next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects

t&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;d
On 29/04/2013 6:00 PM, Andrew Horn wrote:
>
> White-breasted Nuthatches do indeed sweep their nest holes with a 
> beetle. As far as I know, no one really knows why. It might be to 
> deter other birds, predators, or parasites (lots of beetles contain 
> noxious chemicals).

Last year, we had a pair of WB Nuthatches nest in a box just outside the 
kitchen window. They spent about three days "sweeping." The female did 
most of this domestic work, but the male took over near the end while 
she spent more time inside. At times they clearly had something in their 
bills, but mostly it looked to me as if they were just cleaning/scraping.

Doug Linzey
Arlington, NS

next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects