Forestcast Special Episode: Flying the Nuthatch Home

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Once spanning nearly 6 million acres in Missouri's Ozarks, the shortleaf pine and oak woodland ecosystem has dwindled to 100,000 acres today. Along with the loss of this habitat, a bird—the brown-headed nuthatch—disappeared as well. However, after decades of pine woodland restoration, the brown-headed nuthatch has returned to Missouri—by plane.

Over two summers in 2020 and 2021, a team of scientists successfully captured and flew 102 birds from Arkansas to Missouri marking the bird’s return to the state after being locally extinct since 1907. Weighing in at a mere one-third of an ounce, approximately the combined weight of a nickel and a quarter, the return of the brown-headed nuthatch is nevertheless a weighty event.