Giant Nuthatch

How to identify

Field marks

1. Two broad black eyestripes extending to the upper back
2. Pale gray from crown to upper back, paler than the lower back
3. Nearly white cheeks and throat; pale gray underparts
4. Bill and tail relatively long for a nuthatch

Male, female and young

The female has paler black stripes around the eyes, with less contrast between the crown, neck and lower back.

Voice

Often gives a call of three harsh notes repeated rapidly, like the chattering of Oriental Magpie.

Similar species

Chestnut-vented Nuthatch

Has reddish-brown flanks and much narrower black eyestripes; the crown and upper back are no paler than the rest of the upperparts.

Yunnan Nuthatch

May occur in the same habitat in southern Yunnan, but is much smaller and has a white supercilium.

Where and when it's recorded

Giant Nuthatch has been recorded at 18 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 3 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

To protect this bird from disturbance, we don't list exact sites.

Countries and regions with the most records

ThailandChinaMyanmar (Burma)

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The giant nuthatch (Sitta magna) is a species of bird in the family Sittidae. For a nuthatch, it has a long beak and tail.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions