Birdsong field guide
Clark's Nutcracker
Nucifraga columbiana
A robust, gray-and-black corvid of the high mountains, renowned for its specialized symbiotic relationship with large-seeded pine trees.
What it sounds like
A loud, harsh, and grating 'khraa-khraa-khraa' or a series of nasal, rattling notes.
Reference call, compare with what you heard
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Field notes
- A single individual can cache up to 98,000 seeds in one season, far exceeding its caloric needs.
- They possess a specialized sublingual pouch under the tongue used to transport up to 150 seeds at a time.
- They exhibit extraordinary spatial memory, relocating thousands of hidden caches up to nine months later, even under deep snow.
- The species is a primary agent of seed dispersal for the whitebark pine, which produces cones that do not open on their own.
- Nestlings are fed a high-protein diet of regurgitated pine seeds, allowing the birds to breed as early as February while snow is still present.
Habitat
High-elevation coniferous forests, particularly those containing whitebark, limber, or pinyon pines.
Range
Mountainous regions of western North America, from central British Columbia and Alberta south to Baja California and New Mexico.
Similar & commonly confused birds
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