Przevalski’s nuthatch

Przevalski’s nuthatch is a bird species in the family Sittidae, collectively known as nuthatches. The bird is endemic to areas in southeastern Tibet and west central China, including eastern Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan. Sitta przewalskii does not have a full threat-status evaluation.

About Przevalski’s nuthatch in brief

Summary Przevalski's nuthatchPrzevalski’s nuthatch is a bird species in the family Sittidae, collectively known as nuthatches. The species was first described in 1891 from a specimen collected in China’s Haidong Prefecture. The bird is endemic to areas in southeastern Tibet and west central China, including eastern Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan. The altitude at which it nests varies according to locality, but typically is from 2,250–4,500 m. Sitta przewalskii does not have a full threat-status evaluation by BirdLife International or the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A 2014 phylogenetic study of the species found it to be at the base of theNuthatch evolutionary tree out of 21 species examined. Nuthatches are typified by short, compressed wings and short, square 12-feathered tails. They have compact bodies, longish pointed bills, strong toes with long claws, and behaviorally, by their unique head-first manner of descending tree trunks. Most nuthatching have gray or blue upperparts and a black eyestripe. S. przewskii belongs to Leptositta, along with its nominate subspecies, Sitta leucopsis, and the white-breasted nuthATCH.

It was given the rank of full species in 2005 in Pamela C. Rasmussen’s Birds of South Asia. In 2005, Pamela Conon Rasmussen granted the tax status in her book, The Ripley Guide, uncoupling the species from SittaLeucopsis. No subspecies of SittaPrzewALSkii itself has been identified, explaining this separation. In 2007, and endorsed by the International Ornithological Congress, Alan P. Peterson in his well-known Zoological Nomenclature Resource, the World Bird Handbook of the Birds of the World listed S. Przewalkii as a subspecies. The common name and Latin binomial commemorate the Russian explorer Nikolay Przhevalsky, who found the species in Tibet in 1884 and dubbed it Sitta eckloni without providing adequate description, rendering it a nomen nudum. Little is known about its ecology, which is probably comparable to that of thewhite-cheeked n Ruthatch. Sittē is derived from the Ancient Greek name for nuthatched, σίττη, sittē.