In summer the Eurasian Nuthatch lives mostly on insects and spiders, and in winter on nuts and seeds. It is skilled at wedging hard seeds into bark crevices and hacking them open, and it readily builds up stores by hiding food in bark and among lichens. In autumn it hoards diligently and may build up thousands of caches which it remembers and revisits during the winter — an important adaptation for a species that does not migrate. At the bird table it readily takes sunflower seeds, nuts and suet.