Sitta frontalis
Silhouette: Alan and Elaine Wilson (Modified) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The velvet-fronted nuthatch (Sitta frontalis) is a small passerine bird in the nuthatch family Sittidae found in southern Asia, from Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh east to southwestern China and Indonesia. Like other nuthatches, it feeds on insects in the bark of trees, foraging on the trunks and branches and their strongly clawed toes allow them to climb down tree trunks or move on the undersides of horizontal branches. They are found in forests with good tree cover and are often found along with other species in mixed-species foraging flocks. Adult males can be told apart by the black stripe that runs behind and above the eyes. They have a rapid chipping call note. They breed in tree cavities and holes, often created by woodpeckers or barbets.
The velvet-fronted nuthatch has the typical nuthatch shape, short tail and powerful bill and feet. It is a small nuthatch, 12–13.5 cm long. It is violet-blue above, with lavender cheeks, buffy grey underparts, yellow eyes, and a whitish throat. The iris is distinctly pale and yellow. The bill is orange-red to bright red, and there is a black patch on the forehead and lores which is well developed in adults and less... Wikipedia →
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Velvet-fronted Nuthatch sighting in Yala National Park on a given day, based on 21 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 175th most-seen of the 220 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March and August
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Velvet-fronted Nuthatch in Yala National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April–July and September–February, the lowest months. Those are among Yala National Park's driest months, with about 70 mm of rain a month against 340 mm in November.
Between 4 and 7 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Velvet-fronted Nuthatch sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
29th of 33
Of the 33 parks where we can rate Velvet-fronted Nuthatch sightings, Yala National Park ranks 29th at under 5%. The best odds are in Horton Plains National Park (Sri Lanka, about 40%), Periyar National Park (India, about 40%) and Sinharaja Forest Reserve (Sri Lanka, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Velvet-fronted Nuthatch that you can see in Yala National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Indian Robin (about 80%), White-browed Fantail (about 60%) and Oriental Magpie-Robin (about 60%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Velvet-fronted Nuthatch is recorded against all the birds logged in Yala National Park (21 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
