Clark's Nutcracker

Clark's Nutcracker is a distinctive gray corvid of high-elevation western forests, with a pale gray body, black wings, and a black central tail flanked by white outer tail feathers, plus a bold white patch on the secondary wing feathers visible in flight. Its bill is long, straight, and sharply pointed, well suited for prying seeds from pine cones.

This species has an extraordinary ecological relationship with whitebark pine and other high-elevation pines, caching tens of thousands of seeds each autumn in scattered underground caches that it relies on memory alone to relocate throughout the winter and spring, a feat considered one of the most impressive examples of spatial memory in the animal kingdom.

Key Field Marks

• Pale gray body
• Black wings with a bold white patch on the secondaries
• Black central tail feathers with white outer tail feathers
• Long, straight, sharply pointed black bill
• Often seen in noisy flocks at high elevation, sometimes bold around campgrounds

Similar Species

• Gray Jay/Canada Jay is smaller and fluffier with a dark cap and pale face, lacking the strong black-and-white wing and tail pattern of the nutcracker.
• Pinyon Jay is uniformly blue-gray without the white wing patch or black-and-white tail.

Habitat

Clark's Nutcracker inhabits high-elevation coniferous forests, particularly stands of whitebark pine, limber pine, and other high-elevation pines near and above treeline.

Range

Found in mountain ranges of the western United States and southwestern Canada, including the Rockies, Cascades, Sierra Nevada, and Great Basin ranges.

Migration

This species is largely resident but exhibits irruptive movements to lower elevations in years of poor pine seed crops, sometimes appearing well outside its typical range.

Behavior

Clark's Nutcracker is renowned for its seed-caching behavior, storing tens of thousands of pine seeds in thousands of individual underground caches each fall using a specialized pouch under the tongue, then relying on precise spatial memory to relocate a majority of these caches over the following months, including to feed nestlings the following spring.

Voice

The most common call is a harsh, grating khaaa or kra-a-a, along with various other rasping and chattering notes.

Feeding

Pine seeds, especially from whitebark and limber pine, form the dietary staple, supplemented by insects, small vertebrates, and carrion.

Nesting

Pairs nest unusually early in the year, sometimes while snow still covers the ground, building an insulated stick nest in a conifer; both parents incubate the 2-4 pale green, spotted eggs.