Siberian Nuthatch Sitta arctica Scientific name definitions

The Siberian Nuthatch (Sitta arctica) was first described by Sergei Buturlin in 1907 based on a specimen collected in Yakut, Russia. He considered it a full species, but in the 1920s, it was demoted to subspecies level under the umbrella of the Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta europaea). That the Siberian Nuthatch was a species unto itself gained traction again in the 1980s, and it was returned to full species status by various authorities between 2012 and 2020 based on genetic, morphological, and behavioral data. Surprisingly, though, it is not a particularly close relative of the Eurasian Nuthatch, with the Siberian Nuthatch being basal to the entire monophyletic assemblage that contains the Eurasian Nuthatch, the Kashmir Nuthatch (Sitta cashmirensis), Chestnut-vented Nuthatch (Sitta nagaensis), the White-tailed Nuthatch (Sitta himalayensis), the White-browed Nuthatch (Sitta victoriae), and the Indian Nuthatch (Sitta castanea). The ancestor of the Siberian Nuthatch appears to have diverged from the ancestors of these other nuthatches during the Tortonian Stage of the late Miocene, some 7.1–13.1 million years ago, when the northeastern Palearctic was apparently dominated by boreal evergreen coniferous trees rather than the temperate broad-leaved deciduous trees that seemed to dominate the Sino-Himalayan forest belt; thus, the differentiation of the Siberian Nuthatch from related nuthatch species was likely due to adaptation to these different forest ecosystems.

That said, the Siberian Nuthatch is a pretty typical nuthatch, traveling up and down and along trees, often upside down, while probing into and under bark or prying seeds from various conifers. It looks much like other nuthatches as well, with a relatively large head, short wings, and short tail, colored blue-gray above and mostly white below. Its identification is pretty straightforward, though some subspecies of the Eurasian Nuthatch are fairly similar, differing mostly in details of head pattern, tail pattern, and bill length.

The Siberian Nuthatch is resident in the northern forests of central and northeastern Siberia (politically, the Russian Far East and eastern Siberia), mostly from 105–106° E in the west to 166^o–175^o E in the east and ranging south to 62^o N and north to 68^o N. Like many other nuthatches, it is prone to occasional eruptions, likely due to poor cone crops, and has occurred as far west as 91–92^o E in the Yenisei Valley. There are no estimates, even rough ones, of the Siberian Nuthatch population, and though it occurs at relatively low densities, it has a large range and is not currently a species of concern.

Now that its separate species status is cemented, hopefully we will learn some of the mysteries of its biology, with topics as diverse as favored habitat, seasonal movements, courtship, and clutch size only poorly understood.