Vanished Songbird From Missouri Returns Back To State

Missouri Wildlife Officials Are Hoping Tiny Songbird That Disappeared From State Century Ago Will Stay In New Habitat In Mark Twain National Forest.

Vanished Songbird From Missouri Returns Back To State

The Missouri Department of Conservation and other wildlife agencies released 50 brown-headed nuthatch birds in the forest in late August.

The Songbird disappeared from the state in the early 1900s after loggers removed acres of pine forest, which the quarter-ounce birds need for habitat, The Kansas City Star reported.

The wildlife agencies restored pine woodland in the forest to house the birds.

“Brown-headed Nuthatches are pine specialists and excavate their own cavities in pine tree snags, or dead trees, every year,” State Ornithologist Sarah Kendrick said in a news release. “By creating new cavities each year, these Songbird provide cavities for other cavity-nesters, like chickadees and titmice.”

Another 50 nuthatches will be released next August. The birds came from the Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas.

“This is a great example of ecosystem restoration — when you bring back the habitat, you can bring back some of the species that have been lost along the way,” Kendrick said.

This news was originally published at stltoday.com