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| Western Rock Nuthatch Sitta neumayer, Karst edge (SW Slovenia), 30 Dec 2025 |
A short but necessary blog just to publish an exceptional observation that we made at the end of the past year. On the 30th of December 2025 I (Domen) was searching for Wallcreeper Tichodroma muraria on the limestone cliffs along the Karst edge (Kraški rob) in SW Slovenia. Soon after arrival at the site, a rather quiet but insisent "trill", coming from the south-facing limestone slopes, started puzzling me for quite a while. Although I soon recognised in it a Western Rock Nuthatch Sitta neumayer, I still couldn't really believe my ears, as the species has never been documented before in Slovenia and its normal distribution range lies far south from us in coastal Croatia (Velebit mountain chain). However the habitat seemed perfect and Rock Nuthatch might seem a good candidate for a possible northward colonization of the warmest sub-Mediterranean region of Slovenia. Actually there is already a known observation of the species from a limestone quarry near Ilirska Bistrica on the 22nd of July 1996, but the record somehow wasn't accepted by the Slovenian Rarities Committee (although in the past I spoke with the observer, who is very familiar with the species from the Balkans and observed it at really close quarters, without any ID doubts).
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| Looking at EBBA2 maps, the nearest confirmed presence of WRN isn't far away from Slovenia, so a future (current?) colonisation is rather likely. In Croatia the species has expanded north recently. |
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| A short note on previous known WRN records from Slovenia by Hanžel & Šere 2012 (The list of birds of Slovenia with an overview of rare species - Acrocephalus 32 (150/151)). |
Anyway, if we get back to my observation: when I convinced myself the call I was hearing could not be anything else apart from Rock Nuthatch, I ventured closer in the bush-covered limestone scree. The frequent calls getting louder meant I was near the bird and soon I could see it perched on the top of some boulders (not in a vertical limestone cliff) - it was indeed a Western Rock Nuthatch! The photos above were taken a moment after, when the bird allowed some very good views from not far away. When it wasn't calling (spontaneously) from the top of a rock, it was searching for food on the ground among the rocks and the thorny vegetation. In about one hour several other local birders, including Sara, joined me and we could see (and document) the bird a little better, despite the rather "difficult" and uncomfortable rocky-scrubby terrain. Thus this time we have a solid proof of the observation and I'm rather confident the Rarities Committe will confirm it as the 1st Western Rock Nuthatch for Slovenia. The next day (31st of December) several other birders went searching for the bird on the same spot (as well as working the wider area) but with no luck in refinding the bird.
Oh, and in the end we also managed to see my target bird of the day - the Wallcreeper! :-)
