Species BirdsClark's Nutcracker

Clark's Nutcracker

Nucifraga columbiana

UncommonBird
Illustration of Clark's Nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana)

Clark's Nutcracker has a specialized sublingual pouch under its tongue that carries up to 95 pine seeds at a time, and over a single fall season one bird may cache over 30,000 seeds across many square miles. It can retrieve cached seeds nine months later under several feet of snow using spatial memory — an extraordinary cognitive feat. It is critical for the regeneration of whitebark pine forests.

Habitat
Subalpine and montane forests with whitebark and limber pine
Diet
Pine seeds, insects, carrion, and small vertebrates
How common
Uncommon

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