Sitta canadensis
Silhouette: Alan and Elaine Wilson (Modified) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The red-breasted nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) is a small songbird. The adult has blue-grey upperparts with cinnamon underparts, a white throat and face with a black stripe through the eyes, a straight grey bill and a black crown. Its call, which has been likened to a tin trumpet, is high-pitched and nasal. It breeds in coniferous forests across Canada, Alaska and the northeastern and western United States. Though often a permanent resident, it regularly irrupts further south if its food supply fails. There are records of vagrants occurring as far south as the Gulf Coast and northern Mexico. It forages on the trunks and large branches of trees, often descending head first, sometimes catching insects in flight. It eats mainly insects and seeds, especially from conifers. It excavates its nest in dead wood, often close to the ground, smearing the entrance with pitch.
In 1760, the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the red-breasted nuthatch in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Canada. He used the French name Le torchepot de Canada and the Latin Sitta Canadensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names for the species, these usually... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Edmonton | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 2 | Calgary | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 3 | Portland | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Anchorage | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Seattle | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 7 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 8 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Las Vegas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Salt Lake City | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Red-breasted Nuthatch sighting in San Francisco on a given day, based on 8,213 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 100th most-seen of the 375 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Red-breasted Nuthatch in San Francisco on a given day, against under 5% in May to July, the lowest months. That is one of San Francisco's driest months, with about 25 mm of rain against 110 mm in December.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red-breasted Nuthatch sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
13th of 30
Of the 30 cities where we can rate Red-breasted Nuthatch sightings, San Francisco ranks 13th at about 10%. The best odds are in Edmonton (Canada, about 60%), Calgary (Canada, about 50%) and Portland (United States, about 40%).
Same genus: Sitta
The closest relatives of the Red-breasted Nuthatch that you can see in San Francisco (genus Sitta, Nuthatches) are Pygmy Nuthatch (about 20%) and White-breasted Nuthatch (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red-breasted Nuthatch is recorded against all the birds logged in San Francisco (8,213 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
