Chestnut-vented Nuthatch

The chestnut-vented nuthatch lives from Tibet to the mountains of Lâm Đồng province in southern Vietnam. In India, it is found only in the far eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Assam and Meghalaya. The species lives in the Chin Hills of western Myanmar, but most of its distribution in Myanmar is in the eastern half of the country, from Kachin State to at least Shan State, and also into northwestern Thailand. It also nests in Tibet and south-central China, from western Sichuan to Yunnan and marginally in southwestern Guizhou. An isolated Chinese population also lives in northwestern Fujian, on Mount Huanggang. Two other isolated populations from the southernmost part of the species' distribution, one occurring in southern Vietnam on the Đà Lạt Plateau, another being reported in Laos on the Bolaven Plateau. The chestnut-vented nuthatch usually inhabits evergreen forests of the uplands, or forests and pine patches growing on dry ridges in the middle of evergreen forests. Locally, it also occurs in deciduous forests in northeastern India, in Quercus subsericea oak forests and alder groves in northeastern Myanmar, spruce forests (Picea sp.), fir forests (Abies sp.) or rhododendron stands in Yunnan, or poplar (Populus sp.) and walnut (Juglans sp.) in Sichuan. …

The chestnut-vented nuthatch generally lives alone or in pairs, but joins mixed-species foraging flocks outside of the breeding season. In winter, it can thus be observed in the company of different species of tits (Paridae) such as the yellow-cheeked tit (Maclolophus spilonotus), bushtits, woodpeckers, alcippes, and minlas.

Vocalisations. The chestnut-vented nuthatch's calls are varied, with squeaky sit or sit-sit sounds, repeated more or less rapidly with various inflections and in irregular series. Similar but drier tchip or tchit sounds are sometimes made, often in a trill reminiscent of the alarm of a Eurasian wren (Troglodytes troglodytes). The alarm calls of the chestnut-vented nuthatch are reported in English-language literature as nasal sounds in quir, kner or mew, as well as an emphatic, metallic tsit, sometimes doubled or repeated in quick series. The song is a stereotyped, monotonous rattle or tremolo in chichichichichi ... or trr-rrrrrrr-ri ..., lasting less than a second or sometimes slowed down to chi-chi-chi-chi-chi ... or diu-diu-diu- diu-diu reminiscent of the song of the Eurasian nuthatch.

Food. The chestnut-vented nuthatch often forages for food on the ground, on rocks, old stumps, or in trees. No specific information about the diet is known, but the species probably feeds on small arthropods and seeds.

Breeding. …