White Breasted Nuthatch

During my visit to Cherry Hill in October, one of the more playful bird interactions that I had was with this White Breasted Nuthatch. I came across it soon after walking up the wooden staircase which takes you to the trail’s higher part. It was quite peaceful as my family was really the only people who were occupying the space at the time that I watched the nuthatch bounce from tree to tree. It looked as though it was gathering seeds it was finding, or being fed by others, to store away. Naturally, I reached my hand out to feed it and it was no surprise that it took the seeds and fluttered off. As it landed on a branch in front of me, I knew I had to get a photo of it with the seed still in its beak. It remained on the branch for some time, allowing me to step around it at a few different angles for photos before it flew off again. 

The fact that the nuthatch came to me so easily and took the seed without hesitation got me thinking about human interaction with birds, specifically along the trail. There is an obvious bird to human understanding that a hand reached out means that there is food that is being offered to the bird. It is almost as if we have trained wild birds, like we train our own domestic pets, how to receive a “treat”. I also started to think about the consequences of feeding birds. For example, are they being overfed? Will an absurd amount of people giving birds seed do any harm to their stomachs or daily routine of finding and gathering food? In the winter time, there aren’t as many people there to feed them than there are in the summer months. I’ve also noticed a big difference walking on other trails or in nature itself versus the Cherry Hill gate in terms of being able to get close to birds. At Cherry Hill, it is almost an expectation of theirs to receive food, they are close to you and willing to come up to you, whereas in most other natural places, there is little to no physical interaction with the birds that occupy the space.