Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Red-breasted Nuthatch

nuthatch 1 sm
These are frequent visitors to the bird feeder and are seen daily scrambling head downwards on tree trunks.  They are tiny birds compared to the others that arrive at the seed diner and never stay for long darting back to the safety of a tree or to the woods in case a hawk appears.

Originally called Le Torchepot du Canada, the Red-breasted Nuthatch is familiar to most North American bird watchers. Its present name in French is La Sittelle à poitrine rousse, a literal translation of its standard English name. It has been locally called "upside-down bird" (Newfoundland and Labrador)

Started on newsprint with charcoal, here's the original sketch then I added soft pastels.

nuthatch 3 sm

2 comments:

Hedera said...

This little bird is unfamiliar to me - love the local name! Beautiful sketch :)

Jeanette Jobson said...

They are the cutest little things Denise. Blue grey with buff/rust underneath.

The locals name things very differently sometimes, but literal if nothing else!