Tiny songbird that vanished from Missouri 100 years ago is making a comeback

A tiny songbird that vanished from Missouri a century ago is making a comeback.

It took restoring a forest to make it happen.

The Missouri Department of Conservation and other wildlife agencies released the brown-headed nuthatch into the wild in late August. The approximately quarter-ounce bird disappeared from the state in the early 1900s after loggers removed millions of acres of pine forest, officials say.

“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 birds provide cavities for other cavity-nesters, like chickadees and titmice.”

After restoration of pine woodlands in Mark Twain National Forest, the brown-headed nuthatch has a place to live in the state.

Fifty birds were released into the forest, and another 50 will be released next August. The nuthatches are 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.