The Squirrel Bird.

The nuthatch is a small bird common to much of the northern hemisphere. The ones we get in Britain are a little smaller than a sparrow. They have a distinct shape which sets them apart from most of the small birds seen in gardens and woodland, and today I saw one do something I’ve never seen a bird do before.

It flew to the top of an outbuilding at the back of my house carrying a whole peanut in its beak, and then proceeded to place the peanut in a small hole under one of the ridge tiles. It’s not unusual for nuthatches to ram food into a crevice and then peck at it to break it up, but that isn’t what this one did. It pushed the peanut well out of sight, and then collected a beakfull of moss and rammed that into the hole, apparently to hide the nut. It seemed very much as though the bird was preparing a food store for later use.

So has the bird been watching the squirrels and picking up a tip-for-winter, or could it be that birds are rather smarter than we think they are?