White-browed nuthatch

White-browed nuthatch
Conservation status
Endangered  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Sittidae
Genus:	Sitta
Species:	S. victoriae
Binomial name
Sitta victoriae Rippon, 1904
White-browed nuthatch range
Synonyms[2]
Sitta himalayensis victoriae (Rippon, 1904)

The white-browed nuthatch (Sitta victoriae), also known as the Victoria nuthatch, is a species of bird in the family Sittidae. It is a small nuthatch, measuring 11.5 cm (4.5 in) in length and without sexual dimorphism. Like many other nuthatches, the upperparts are gray-blue, contrasting with white underparts on the throat, cheeks, and breast and orange on the flanks, belly, and lower abdomen. Its white supercilium makes it easy to distinguish it from the white-tailed nuthatch (S. himalayensis), which is a close species in the systematic and geographical sense. Little is known about its ecology, but it feeds on small insects found among bark and lichens, and breeding occurs around April.

The white-browed nuthatch is endemic to Nat Ma Taung, also known as Mount Victoria, in the southern Chin Hills of Myanmar. It inhabits old oak groves at high elevations, generally above 2,600 m (8,500 ft). The numbers of the species are poorly known but are estimated at a few thousand individuals. They are threatened by habitat destruction by fire and human pressure. For these reasons, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature considers the bird to be an "endangered species."