A great way to help brown-headed nuthatches is to give them good spots to make their homes. It's really easy to make a nesting box for a nuthatch. One can create a box just like a any birdhouse, but the opening for the bird needs to be smaller, to keep larger birds out.
Eastern bluebird populations fell in the early twentieth century as aggressive introduced species such as European starlings and house sparrows made available nest holes increasingly difficult for bluebirds to hold on to. In the 1960s and 1970s establishment of bluebird trails and other nest box campaigns alleviated much of this competition, especially after people began using nest boxes designed to keep out the larger european starling. Eastern bluebird numbers have been recovering since. Today, a very similar thing is happening with brown-headed nuthatches, but by decreasing the hole size in birdhouses, the nuthatch population can be brought out of decline.
Birdhouse openings with a diameter of one inch are best for nuthatches, because the small hole size keeps larger birds out. Although it's easy, one doesn't have to construct their own nest box. One can turn any birdhouse into one fit for a nuthatch with an excluder, a metal piece that can be attached to any birdhouse. The Audubon Society's North Carolina branch will give free excluders to those who contact them at nuthatch@audubon.org. This allows those who already have birdhouses to easily convert them to nuthatch houses.
Plans for the houses can easily be found on the internet, but a great, sturdy, simple plan is here, that can be combined with the excluders.
