Relationship with Humans

Nuthatch comes from the Anglo-Saxon hnutu, meaning "nut" and hack, which has been transformed into "hatch;" the resultant "nuthack" refers to the way that many species of nuthatches hack away at nuts that are too large to be consumed whole (58 Choate, E. A. (1985). The Dictionary of American Bird Names. Revised edition. Harvard Common Press, Cambridge, MA, USA. Close ). "Siberian" refers, accurately, to this species' range. The genus name, Sitta, come from the Greek "sitte," a word originally used by Aristotle to describe birds that pecked at trees and then used specifically to refer to nuthatches in Ancient Greek (59 Holloway, J. E. (2003). Dictionary of Birds of the United States. Timber Press, Portland, OR, USA. Close , 60 Brookes, I. (2006). The Chambers Dictionary, ninth edition. Chambers, London, United Kingdom. Close ), while arctica, again, refers to this species' range.