Velvet-fronted Nuthatch

How to identify

Field marks

1. Bill orange-red to bright red
2. Black patches on the forehead and lores
3. Yellow eyes
4. Violet-blue upperparts and lavender cheeks

Male, female and young

The male has a black supercilium above the eye; the female lacks this and has warmer underparts. Juveniles are duller and lack the black forehead band.

Voice

Often repeats “sit-sit-sit”; also gives rapid, short chirps.

Where and when it's recorded

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch has been recorded at 437 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 16 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Tai Po Kau Nature ReserveHong Kong (China)1,806 records
2. Wildlife Institute of IndiaIndia1,317 records
3. Bondla Wildlife SanctuaryIndia842 records

Countries and regions with the most records

IndiaChinaThailandMalaysiaSri LankaNepalCambodiaVietnam

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 velvet-fronted nuthatch (Sitta frontalis) is a small passerine bird in the nuthatch family Sittidae found in southern Asia, from Nepal, India, Sri Lanka ‍and Bangladesh east to southwestern China and Indonesia. Like other nuthatches, it feeds on insects in the bark of trees, foraging on the trunks and branches and their strongly clawed toes allow them to climb down tree trunks or move on the undersides of horizontal branches. They are found in forests with good tree cover and are often found along with other species in mixed-species foraging flocks.

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

Questions