nuthatch

noun

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

1. Any of various small passerine birds from the genus Sitta, found throughout the northern hemisphere and noted for their unusual proclivity for climbing down trees head first.

   “Nuthatches have rather a habit of entering houses through open windows, probably out of curiosity; and we owed to this habit a pet nuthatch, which became extremely tame, and used to take flies from our finger.”

   “The bird was in very faded plumage with only a slight rusty wash to the underparts, and had I not heard the call, I might have mistaken it for a Pygmy Nuthatch.”