Clark's Nutcracker

While on a walk in Glacier National Park I found this Nutcracker eating the pine cones.

Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana), sometimes... more

by Robert Bales

Title

Clark's Nutcracker

Artist

Robert Bales

Medium

Photograph - Photo

Description

While on a walk in Glacier National Park I found this Nutcracker eating the pine cones.

Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana), sometimes referred to as Clark's crow or woodpecker crow, is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae. It is slightly smaller than its Eurasian relative the spotted nutcracker (N. caryocatactes). It is ashy-grey all over except for the black-and-white wings and central tail feathers (the outer ones are white). The bill, legs and feet are also black. This bird derives its name from the explorer William Clark. It can be seen in western North America from British Columbia and western Alberta in the north to Baja California and central New Mexico in the south. There is also a small isolated population on the peak of Cerro Potos�, elevation 3,700 metres (12,200 ft), in Nuevo Le�n, northeast Mexico. It is mainly found in mountains at altitudes of 900�3,900 metres (3,000�12,900 ft) in conifer forest. Outside the breeding season, it may wander extensively to lower altitudes and also further east as far as Illinois (and exceptionally, Pennsylvania), particularly following any cone crop failure in its normal areas.

High in the mountains of the West, gray-and-black Clark�s Nutcrackers swoop among wizened pine trees, flashing white in the tail and wing. They use their dagger-like bills to rip into pine cones and pull out large seeds, which they stash in a pouch under their tongue and then carry away to bury for the winter. Each birds buries tens of thousands of seeds each summer and remembers the locations of most of them. Seeds they don�t retrieve play a crucial role in growing new pine forests.
Clark�s Nutcrackers are birds of the mountains. They are closely associated with pines that produce large seeds, such as whitebark pine and limber pine, but are also found in other montane evergreen forests from about 3,000 to more than 11,000 feet in the West.

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September 14th, 2014