Brown-headed nuthatches disappeared from Missouri in the early 1900s with the loss of most of the region’s pine woodland. After years of pine woodland restoration on the Mark Twain National Forest, the next step was to return the brown-headed nuthatch to the state. Forty-six of the birds were translocated from Arkansas to Missouri in 2020, and another 56 were released in August 2021.

Exploitative logging and the loss of most of the shortleaf pine woodlands in the Missouri Ozarks led to the extirpation of the brown-headed nuthatch in Missouri more than a century ago. Decades of pine woodland restoration by the Mark Twain National Forest and other agencies over the past several decades, which included using prescribed fire and thinning, created more than 150,000 acres of habitat suitable for the reintroduction of brown-headed nuthatch. A team that included the Northern Research Station, Mark Twain and Ouachita National Forests, Missouri Department of Conservation, University of Missouri, Tall Timbers Research Station, and other partners began reintroducing the bird in 2020. In August, 56 birds were captured on the Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas and released in restored pine woodlands on the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri. Forty-six birds were released in August 2020, and monitoring revealed that most of the birds survived and four successful nests were documented. With the reintroduction of birds in 2021, the team exceeded the initial goal of reintroducing 100 brown-headed nuthatches by exactly two birds. While generally considered restoration, this project is also a test of a climate adaptation strategy because this ecosystem and species may need to move north with climate change.