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nuthatch

UK/ˈnʌtˌhæt͡ʃ/US/ˈnʌtˌhæt͡ʃ/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,215 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: nuthatches

A nuthatch is a small bird that walks head-first down tree trunks. Spot a nuthatch, the nuthatch on the feeder, a nesting nuthatch.

It is the only British bird that goes down a trunk head-first, which is how it finds insects a treecreeper going up has missed. It also plasters mud round its nest hole to narrow the entrance.

Serge Ninanne · CC BY-SA 2.0

Definitions of nuthatch

  1. 1nounnuthatchA small bird that walks head-first down tree trunks.C1

    “A nuthatch scurried head-first down the trunk of the old oak.”

nuthatch is a bird.

Where it comes from

Middle English nuthache is nut plus a word related to hack, from the way it wedges and hammers nuts open.

  1. Middle English

    nutthache

  2. English, today

    nuthatch

From Middle English nutthache, notehache, nuthake, nuttehake, nothak, equivalent to nut + hatch (akin to hack). Compare English nutcracker. Compare typologically kowalik (akin to kować).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Birds

Practise this word

nuthatch in the wild

  • The nuthatches () constitute a genus, Sitta, of small passerine birds belonging to the family Sittidae.

    Nuthatch

  • Characterised by large heads, short tails, and powerful bills and feet, nuthatches advertise their territory using loud, simple songs.

    Nuthatch

  • The Eurasian nuthatch, wood nuthatch (Sitta europaea), or simply nuthatch, is a small passerine bird found throughout the Palearctic and in Europe.

    Eurasian nuthatch

  • The nuthatch can forage when descending trees head first, as well as when climbing.

    Eurasian nuthatch

  • The beautiful nuthatch (Sitta formosa) is a bird species in the family Sittidae, collectively known as nuthatches.

    Beautiful nuthatch

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.