The Red-breasted Nuthatch, Sitta canadensis, is a small songbird. Adults have blue-grey upperparts with reddish underparts; they have a white face with a black stripe through the eyes, a white throat, a straight grey bill and a black crown. This bird is smaller than the White-breasted Nuthatch.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

The Red-breasted Nuthatch, Sitta canadensis, is a small songbird. Adults have blue-grey upperparts with…

"Upper parts leaden-blue the central tail-feathers the same; wings fuscous, with slight ashy edgings and concealed white bases of the primaries. Entire under parts rusty-brown, very variable in shade, from rich fulvous to brownish-white, usually palest on the throat, deepest on the sides and crissum; tail-feathers, except the middle pair, black, the lateral marked with white. Whole top and side of head and neck glossy black, that of the side appearing as a broad bar through the eye from bill to side of neck, cut off from that of the crown by a long white superciliary stripe, which meets its fellow across the forehead. Bill dark plumbeous, paler below; feet plumbeous-brown." Elliot Coues, 1884

Red-breasted Nuthatch

"Upper parts leaden-blue the central tail-feathers the same; wings fuscous, with slight ashy edgings…