[Bristol-Birds] Bristol CBC Brown-headed Nuthatch and enormous contribution !

Possibly the most significant find of any species during the region's 
Christmas Bird Counts, which date back to the first nearly 80 years
ago, was the Brown-headed Nuthatch heard by Rick Knight and
Ellen Park at Washington County Park on South Holston Lake this
past December.

Taking part in the Bristol CBC, the birders may have made an enormous 
contribution to conservation -- the very thing these Audubon counts 
seek to accomplish. 
 
Volunteers are crucial to the success of programs that monitor the 
long-term status of populations of Brown-headed Nuthatch and other
bird species. Audubon's Christmas Bird Count is one of the 
longest-running citizen-science monitoring programs in the world and 
has helped to follow changes in the numbers and distribution of the 
Brown-headed Nuthatch.

The Brown-headed Nuthatch is a "Bird of Conservation Concern" to the
national Partners In Flight (PIF) effort.  Little is known about many aspects of
its life history including its distribution and how it survives and extends its 
range.

Here is what we can imply and should seek to understand about the species.
in the Virginia highlands as well as the Ridge and Valley Region of this 
upper Tennessee River drainage which flows south.


The Brown-headed has been located
in a mature stand of what appears to
be Shortleaf Pine.  The trees are
approximately 45 to maybe 50 years
of age.  The stand is about a 100
yards in length and maybe 30 yards
wide -- standing in the open along 
the shoreline of the lake.  The 
understory is open and park like.

This stand seems to be a small
conservation-type plantation which
was not present in the early 1960s.
It was detectable in air photos by
1970.  The elevation is about 1740
feet.  It stands on a well-drained
slope of somewhat southern exposure.

The Shortleaf Pine occurs up to about 3,000 ft. and the Brown-headed
Nuthatch up to about 2500 ft. in the Southern Appalachians.

This pine commonly grows in even-aged stands such as found at this
South Holston Lake site.

This combination of mature Shortleaf Pine with open understory is
probably rare in our region but we don't yet know that.  We must better
understand the possibilities of such habitat distribution.

The bird is a species almost exclusively associated with stands of 
mature pines. The Brown-headed Nuthatch lives year-round in the 
southeastern United States. Very little post-breeding movements 
have been documented for this species, which often remains on 
territory throughout its life. Loss of habitat due to logging, forest 
fragmentation, and fire suppression threaten the species.

Does this suggest that the Washington County Park bird is a wayward
straggler or accidental greatly displaced from any nearby breeding
population ?  Or does it open the window to the possibility that several
breeding populations are in the region and have been under our radar?

We do not yet know how many Brown-headed are present at the park.
Has there been a pair nesting here for a decade or so ?  This is a species
that is very easy to detect during the breeding season but this park is
not the kind of place any of us frequent during breeding season.  The
breeding season for this nuthatch begins now.  Are we to expect that
this bird is wintering on this site and will quickly move away ?  The
conventional understanding of the species says no.  In fact, we should
move forward with the hypothesis that it nests at the park with possibly
more than one pair and that it is part of a small but not detected breeding
population.  That should be our top-of-mind awareness.  It would be
too bad if birders say tic that one and let's go looking for other species
that draw ooohs and ahhs among our peers.

Numbers are declining throughout its range. Breeding Bird Surveys in 
southeastern North America from 1966 through 2001, show a statistically 
significant annual population decline of 2.2 percent. Since this bird makes 
limited movements away from its breeding grounds,  forest fragmentation 
is harmful. Birds aren't re-colonizing where suitable habitat has once again 
become available. 

Information on where Brown-headed Nuthatches occur and in what numbers 
is vital to conserving the species.  Washington County Park offers us a
tremendous opportunity to contribute to the understanding of this species
in the Upper Holston Watershed and its range in both Virginia and Tennessee.

Let's go birding . . . 

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN

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