Metal complexes with the tridentate ligand 2,6-bis­[(1H-pyrazol-1-yl)meth­yl]pyridine are known to be catalysts of polyethyl­ene polymerization (Singh et al., 2003 ▸; Watson et al., 1987 ▸; Son et al., 2014 ▸; Kim & Kang, 2015 ▸). 2,6-Bis[(1H-pyrazol-1-yl)meth­yl]pyridine was oxidized to pyridine-2,6-di­carboxyl­ate (pdc) by metal nitrate (Unuigboje & Anyile, 2007 ▸). The pdc mol­ecule has been recognized as a component of bacterial spores, and is also useful in a variety of processes as an enzyme inhibitor, plant preservative and food sanitizer (Cui et al., 2011 ▸). The pdc mol­ecule has been selected as a primary dibasic tridentate ligand and a metal complex with pdc was reported to be a new chemical sensor (Mistri et al., 2013 ▸). Attention has been paid to the design of various N-donor ligands with special structural properties in order to investigate the specific stereochemical requirements of a particular metal-binding site (Mukherjee, 2000 ▸). Various substituted N-donor heterocyclic ligands such as imidazole and pyrazole have been selected as a second ligand, so that the structural and electronic effects on the biologically important Cu—N bond could be probed (Ang et al., 1991 ▸; Chen et al., 2011 ▸; Lin et al., 2009 ▸; Liu et al., 2005 ▸). As part of these continuing studies, the title complex has been synthesized and characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction.