Corsican Nuthatch

The Corsican nuthatch is the only species of bird endemic to Corsica, and even to metropolitan France. Its range covers the majority of the island, which is very mountainous. This bird is found from the Tartagine-Melaja forest in the north to the Ospedale forest in the south, but it is particularly abundant in the Monte Cinto, Monte Rotondo, Monte Renoso and Monte Incudine Massifs. There are also two isolated populations, one in Castagniccia in the northeast of the island, and another in the Cagna forest in the south. The Corsican nuthatch favours Corsican pine (Pinus nigra var. corsicana) forests interspersed with clearings; their Mediterranean climate habitat is fairly dry in the summer (three weeks to two months of drought) and experiences heavy rainfall and/or snow in the winter (total 800–1,800 mm (31–71 in) per year). This nuthatch is sedentary; it generally lives in deep valleys between 1,000 m (3,300 ft) and 1,500 m (4,900 ft) above sea level between April and October, but can be found from 750–1,800 m (2,460–5,910 ft), although the more open forests at higher elevations are less suitable. It descends lower in winter, and may then inhabit mixed forests of Corsican and maritime pines (Pinus pinaster) or forests of silver fir (Abies alba); however, its stand indices are significantly lower than in pure Corsican pine forests. …

Like all nuthatches, the Corsican nuthatch can move head down along branches, and is rarely found on the ground. It is a territorial bird and is not shy. It lives in monogamous pairs evolving all year long on the same territory of three to ten hectares, the two birds of the couple defending it from intruders, of the same species or of another. The home range, the area where the birds generally live within their territory, varies in size, depending on the season and age of the birds, but especially on the cone production of the pines.

Food and feeding. The Corsican nuthatch consumes mainly pine seeds, but also small insects in summer. From March to November, small arthropods (adult insects and their larvae, spiders) represent the main part of its diet; it catches them in flight but more generally in the trees; it makes a quarter of its captures in flight, from a lookout post, and exploits the rest of the time the substrates provided by the trees. In spring and summer, it is more likely to be found in the treetops, foraging high up in the foliage of pine trees, at the end of branches, like a tit; in autumn, however, it searches for food along the trunks and on large branches, and may also form mixed feeding flocks with other small passerines outside the breeding season. …

The Corsican nuthatch is sometimes referred to as Whitehead's nuthatch, and it also has a variety of local names in the Corsican language, such as pichjarina, pichja sorda or furmicula, and capinera, used at least in Corte. The species remains relatively unknown to the public. The regional natural park of Corsica has published a small comic strip on the bird, and the "Corsican ornithological group" (GOC) has chosen the species as its logo, represented in a very refined form. In the forest of Aïtone, near Évisa, the National Forestry Office has created a "nuthatch trail", which is one of the places where the species can be more easily observed.