Indian Nuthatch

The Indian nuthatch is found in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. It, including the older prateri of the Eastern Ghats, is found south of the Ganges, resident in the Terai and Gangetic plain extending into central India, the Eastern Ghats, the Sundarbans and a disjunct population in the Western Ghats. It is the only grey-backed, rufous-bellied nuthatch in the peninsula (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is similar to the chestnut-bellied nuthatch but has a smaller bill and a frosty crown paler than the mantle, and its wing and tail patterns lack contrast, with grey centres to the chestnut undertail coverts. Its habitats are subtropical or tropical dry, moist lowland and moist montane forests, and it breeds from February to July. SoIB 2023 treats it as endemic to the Indian subcontinent and rates it a Moderate conservation priority, with a Moderate range of about 231,000 km² and insufficient data on trends (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).