Krüper's nuthatch

Krüper's nuthatch is threatened by habitat loss caused by forestry and especially by tourist development on the Turkish coasts.2] The conclusions of the study are in agreement with the morphology of the species, the red-breasted, Corsican, and Chinese nuthatches sharing, in particular as a derivative characteristic, the entirely black crown only present in males, a unique trait in Sittidae and related families.The second clade, grouping together Krüper's and Algerian nuthatches are thought to have the front of the black crown in males, this sexual dimorphism being absent in young individuals.The authors conclude that there are significant genetic diversities between the different localities, showing that the species occurred in at least three refuges during the last glaciation maximum.[11] The upperparts are blue-grey with a black front crown in adults of both sexes, and the primary and secondary flight feathers are grey-brown.[6] The sexual dimorphism is not very marked, especially in summer when the plumage is worn, but the female's crown is less black and less sharply defined at the back, whereas the male's crown is sharply defined in glossy black[10] The female underparts are paler and buff, while the male is blue-grey to pale grey.[10][12] The juvenile, on the other hand, is more easily distinguished, having much duller plumage and lacking the black crown; at most, the front of it is darker than the rest of the upperparts.[6] While sharing the dark front of the crown and the marked white supercilium, the Algerian nuthatch has cream or buffy underparts and lacks the large russet-brown pectoral patch and undertail coverts.[12] The Krüper's nuthatch is an active bird, and it finds its food among the smallest branches in the tops of large trees, but also in other levels of vegetation.Insects are gleaned along branches, or caught in flight, and conifer seeds are extracted from cone scales with the bill, before being wedged into a crack in the bark and hammered open.A study conducted out over four breeding seasons in southern Turkey showed that nests were built to a height of nearly 12 m (470 in), with extremes between 2.1 m (83 in) and 24 m (940 in), and were often facing east.Eggs have been observed on the top of a stump or on a pile of twigs at the fork of a tree, but these unusual nesting sites may only be used when cavities are unavailable.The bottom of the nest is lined with bark chips, rotten wood and pine cone scales, covered with moss, hair, wool, and feathers.[19] Krüper's nuthatch has a very close relationship with the Turkish pine (Pinus brutia), and the range of the bird almost completely overlaps that of the tree.[13] Krüper's nuthatch lives in temperate coniferous forests from sea level up to around 2,000 m altitude, locally to the tree line at 2,500 m.[13] In Turkey, it lives mainly between 1,000 m and 1,600 m and inhabits the forests of Turkish pine, Caucasian spruce (Picea orientalis), Caucasian fir (Abies nordmanniana), Cilician fir (Abies cilicica), black pine (Pinus nigra) and Lebanon cedar (Cedrus libani).
Illustrated by John Gould , showing a male Krüper's nuthatch on the right and a juvenile on the left.
Male Krüper's nuthatch.
An adult feeding its incubating partner at the entrance to its nest.
A forest of Turkish pine ( Pinus brutia ) in Pozantı , Turkey .
LesbosGreeceConservation statusLeast ConcernIUCN 3.1Scientific classificationEukaryotaAnimaliaChordataPasseriformesSittidaeBinomial namePelzelnSynonymsnuthatchsuperciliuminsectsclutchconiferous forestsTurkeyCaucasusGeorgiaKrasnodar KraiKarachay-CherkessiaRussiaTurkish pineAlgerian nuthatchforestryInternational Union for Conservation of NatureJohn GouldAugust von PelzelnprotonymİzmirTheobald Johannes KrüperInternational Ornithological CongressHans Edmund WoltersYunnan nuthatchred-breasted nuthatchChinese nuthatchCorsican nuthatchcytochrome bmitochondrial DNAphylogeneticallynuclearmorphologysexual dimorphismphylogeographylast glaciation maximumnuclear genetic materialflight feathersunderwing-covertsplumagepost-nuptial moultmixed-species foraging flocksEuropean greenfinchEurasian jayvegetationforageAnatoliagreat titcommon redstartbeetlesinsect larvaelepidopteraearthwormsfledgedprotistsHaemoproteusLeucocytozoonPlasmodiumPozantıMediterranean coastTaurus MountainsBlack SeavagrantThessalonikiYozgatScots pineCrimeaLebanonAzerbaijanSeasonal altitudinalSochi ArboretumconifersCaucasian spruceCaucasian firCilician firblack pineLebanon cedarjunipersnear threatenedInternational Union for the Conservation of NatureumlautInternational Code of Zoological NomenclatureDavid QuinnIndian nuthatchyellow-billed nuthatchwhite-browed nuthatchPrzevalski's nuthatchS. europaeaBahama nuthatchBrown-headed nuthatchIUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesChristopher HelmJournal of OrnithologyThe Wilson Journal of OrnithologySvensson, L.Mullarney, K.Zetterström, D.Collins Bird GuideWikidataWikispeciesARKiveAvibaseBirdLifeEURINGFauna EuropaeaFauna Europaea (new)iNaturalistOpen Tree of LifeXeno-canto