Nuthatch on the Apple Tree (gouache style)

The nuthatch is the only British bird that regularly climbs down tree trunks head first. It's blue-grey above and orange-buff below, with a long black stripe through the eye and a strong, pointed bill. Nuthatches wedge nuts and seeds into cracks in bark, then hammer them open, which is how they got their name. They're noisy, with a loud, ringing call, and they're found mostly in England and Wales.

Nuthatches need mature trees, so old apple trees, oaks and beeches in or near a garden help them. They nest in old woodpecker holes and will use a nest box with a 32mm hole, plastering mud round the entrance until it fits. Put boxes up in autumn or winter. At feeders they'll take peanuts, sunflower hearts and suet. Moss and lichen on apple bark don't harm the tree. Prune apples in winter while they're dormant, and keep old branches with holes where you can.

A nuthatch climbs head first down a mossy apple trunk, with apples on the branches above. That downward posture is what defines the bird, and an old fruit tree is just the kind of place it searches. With fruit on the tree it's late in the growing year, when nuthatches are busy storing food.