It breeds in coniferous forests across Canada, Alaska and the northeastern and western United States.

It forages on the trunks and large branches of trees, often descending head first, sometimes catching insects in flight.

In 1760, the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the red-breasted nuthatch in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Canada.

He used the French name Le torchepot de Canada and the Latin Sitta Canadensis.

[2] Although Brisson coined Latin names for the species, these usually do not conform to the binomial system and none of them are recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.

[3] In 1766, when the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson.

[6] "Nuthatch" is a linguistic corruption of "nuthack", referring to the bird's habit of wedging nuts into cracks in tree bark and hacking at them until they break open.

Sexes are similarly plumaged, though females and youngsters have duller heads and paler underparts.

[12] They sometimes reach northern Mexico, where they are rare winter visitors to Nuevo León, Baja California Norte and south along the Pacific slope as far as Sinaloa.

[15] It is an extremely rare vagrant to Europe, with two records in the western Palearctic; one bird successfully overwintered in eastern England.

In the summer, it eats mostly insects, occasionally even flycatching, while in the winter, it switches to conifer seeds.

Because of its large global range and its increasing population, the red-breasted nuthatch is rated as a species of Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.