The nutcracker is a very unusual bird; a monument was even erected to it in Tomsk. She received this honor for promoting the spread of Siberian cedar. While stocking up on nuts and seeds, birds often forget about them, and the seeds germinate over time. The nutcracker is often even called the “savior of the forest.”
After all, pine cones are very heavy and fall right under the tree, but it is the nutcracker that helps the seeds grow very far from their native tree. There were cases when young cedar shoots were found 8-10 km from the forest. This wonderful bird will be discussed.
Description of nutcracker
Appearance
In nutcrackers, sexual differences are clearly expressed, especially in adult individuals.. Even a non-specialist can distinguish them. Females differ from males in size; they are somewhat smaller. Their plumage is duller than that of males. The coloring of the nutcracker's plumage allows them to almost completely blend into their environment – the taiga thickets. These are not very large birds, despite their secrecy, they are often vulnerable to predators. The flight of the nutcracker is difficult, its wings are hard. Therefore, she needs rest even after a short flight.
This is interesting! These birds prefer to rest on dry branches, which offer a good view.
In this way, they inspect their territory for the presence of predators or strangers, with whom serious skirmishes often arise for territory.
Nutcrackers belong to the corvid family. These are birds slightly smaller than a jackdaw or a jay. The length of the nutcracker is about 30 cm plus a tail, the length of which does not exceed 11 cm. The wingspan is on average 55 cm.
Unlike many other corvids, the nutcracker is colored brown, less often almost black, with numerous white spots, and there is a white border on the tail. A female nutcracker weighs 150-170 grams, a male 170-190 grams. The beak and legs of the bird are dark or black.
Character and behavior
Nutcrackers are secretive and fairly quiet birds. They very rarely make a voice that sounds like a rattling croak. The only exceptions are the mating season and the time of harvesting a new crop of nuts. If the harvest is weak, then the cries of nutcrackers become much quieter.
The nutcracker stores large reserves of nuts for times of famine, and according to scientists, in the warm season it finds them by smell, and in winter, when the snow cover becomes too large, it is almost impossible for the bird to find what is hidden.
This is interesting! It is believed that the nutcracker is capable of making about 50 thousand so-called bookmarks in its entire life. Then, over time, trees grow in forgotten places where food supplies were hidden.
There is a known case when it was possible to catch a nutcracker with 165 nuts in the throat sac. This is quite an impressive load, considering that the nutcracker is a bird of rather modest size.
These birds are very active, usually living in pairs or alone, but sometimes gather in small but noisy flocks. Most often this happens when birds fly in search of food. The love for nuts is so strong that there have been cases when nutcrackers drove squirrels out of a cedar tree that had a lot of cones full of nuts. Nutcrackers form pairs for life, that is, they are monogamous.
Image and life expectancy
Nutcrackers are not migratory birds. They lead a sedentary lifestyle, making only short flights in search of food and new territories. These are true inhabitants of the harsh taiga climate; they are able to withstand the most severe frosts. Nutcrackers are territorial birds; they obtain food only within the boundaries of their territory, which they zealously protect from strangers.
This is interesting! These birds live for quite a long time, some individuals live for 10-12 years or longer. They are not usually kept as pets in captivity.
In zoos where good conditions are created and there are no natural enemies, they can live up to 15 years.
Habitat
The nutcracker is a typical inhabitant of the taiga. It can often be found in taiga-type forests in Europe and Asia from Scandinavia and the Alps to Japan and China. This small bird prefers dense coniferous forests. Here nutcrackers find their main food - seeds, which are obtained from pine, spruce and cedar cones.
With modern active climate change, nutcrackers can be found even in forests near Moscow, which was not the case 15-20 years ago. However, this is more an accident than a trend. Perhaps the birds were introduced artificially, and later they took root and settled in new territories.
Diet of what the nutcracker eats
The majority of the butternut nut's diet consists of coniferous tree seeds. During reproduction and during the period of feeding the offspring, insects are added to the nuts, thereby providing themselves and the offspring with protein food. In forests located in mountainous areas, the living conditions of birds change depending on the time of year.
From late spring to autumn there is always a lot of food for nutcrackers, numerous nuts and berries ripen, and insects breed. But most of all these birds love pine nuts. It is known that the nutcracker's throat sac can contain much more nuts than it can eat.
Reproduction and offspring
During the nesting period, this bird behaves especially secretively and is almost impossible to see. It is very rare to see a nutcracker in a nest while the chicks are hatching.
Important! These birds approach nest construction very carefully, using moss, leaves, clay and branches as building materials.
The nests of nutcrackers are very strong and, as a rule, they are located at a height of 4-6 m. But this does not always save them from predators that can climb trees, but it does protect them from ground-dwelling ones.
The breeding and nesting period for nutcrackers lasts from March to May. The female lays 4-5, in rare cases 7, light blue eggs with brown spots. Hatching time is 18-22 days. Both parents hatch the clutch in turns, allowing each other to rest and fly off for food.
Nutcrackers are monogamous birds that form pairs for life. The male and female take part in feeding the offspring. After about 3-4 weeks, the chicks are ready to fly out of the nest for the first time. The parents continue to feed the chicks for quite a long time by bird standards - about 3 months, after which they leave the nest.
Appearance and behavior. The motley forest bird is somewhat smaller in size. Body length 32–35 cm, wingspan 49–53 cm, weight 120–200 g. The head is large, the beak is long and straight. The tail is relatively short, with a light border, wider at the bottom. The general background of the plumage is dark brown, with numerous white spots. During the nesting period, the bird is very secretive; it often catches your eye during post-nesting migrations. A forest species, it mainly moves along the crowns of trees, can jump along branches and hang under spruce cones when extracting seeds from them.
Description. There are no similar species. Males and females are no different. In adult birds, the color is dark brown, with drop-shaped white spots, narrower on the back and shoulders, wider and more rounded on the chest and belly. There are streak-shaped spots on the throat and neck. The cap is black-brown, without spots. The wings and tail are black, with a green tint, without spots. The top of the tail and undertail are white. The beak and legs are black. The eyes are brown. In European Russia there are 2 subspecies, quite different in appearance.
Birds of the European subspecies N. s. caryocatactes, inhabiting the central part of the region, have a slightly wider thick beak at the base with a slightly curved ridge downward, and the white border at the tops of the tail feathers is narrower (no more than 2.5 cm). Birds of the Siberian subspecies N. s. macrorhynchos(in our region they nest in the Urals and in the Cis-Urals, sometimes during invasions they appear in more western and southern regions) have a thinner, narrow beak with a straighter ridge, and the width of the border on their tail feathers is at least 3 cm. Young birds have coloration lighter and browner than in adults; white spots with blurred edges, throat lighter. The beak is shorter than that of adult birds.
Distribution, status. The range includes the forest zone from the Balkans and Scandinavia to the Far East and Southeast Asia. In European Russia it nests in dark coniferous and mixed forests from the Baltic and White Seas to the Urals. The northern border of the range reaches the forest zone, the southern - the Moscow and Kirov regions. Southern Urals. Sedentary species, with limited migrations in winter. The number depends on the harvest of pine nuts and spruce seeds. In years when there is no harvest for cedar and spruce, it can make mass migrations far to the south, at which time it is found all the way to the forest-steppe zone.
Lifestyle. Characteristic forest look. Prefers coniferous forests (spruce, fir and cedar). It begins to breed at the age of 1–2 years and nests in separate pairs. During the entire reproductive period, it leads a very secretive lifestyle. It begins nesting even before the snow melts. The nest is located on a tree at a height of 5–8 m, usually in a remote area of the forest. The clutch contains 2–5 bluish-green eggs with small brown spots. Incubation lasts 16–18 days. The chicks leave the nest at the age of 3–4 weeks, after which the nutcrackers immediately begin migrating and become noticeable and noisy birds.
The charming and noisy nutcracker bird is known to almost all people living near vast taiga forests. This bird is also known as the nutcracker. This small bird received this name because of the specifics of its diet, the main diet of which is pine nuts.
Due to the wide distribution of nutcrackers and their loudness, quite often these birds are shot. For this reason, you can hear the question from amateur hunters: is it possible to eat a nutcracker bird?
Kedrovka – chief forester
The small nutcracker bird belongs to the corvid family and, like all crows, has an average body size, a small body weight from 125 g to 200 g and a massive beak. Birds settle in areas where cedar trees are common. Most often you can see them in the Russian taiga expanses and in the mountains of Europe.
Nutcrackers live in noisy flocks. Noisy birds fly from cedar to cedar, constantly calling to each other and wagging their tails in front of each other.
A special feature of the nut is the presence of a storage sac in its body. When collecting nuts, the bird does not hollow them out, but puts them entirely in a compartment under the tongue. Thus, in one raid, a nutcracker can collect up to 100 nuts.
After collecting the required amount of nuts, the nutcracker flies away from the tree being processed at a distance of 2 km to 4 km and hides its reserves. During the summer period, she organizes more than 50 thousand caches.
Often, nuts are forgotten where they hid their reserves and thanks to them, not only birds, but also chipmunks, sables, and bears feed in the winter. Nuts not found by forest inhabitants swell and germinate in the spring. Thus, forgetful birds increase the number of cedars and restore the forest.
At the moment, due to climate change, nuts are found even in the Moscow region. Noisy birds settle in parks in winter, looking for nuts and berries.
Edible - not edible?
Due to the appearance of a large number of nutcrackers in villages and cities, hunting enthusiasts began shooting these restless birds, and many were interested in the question of whether it is possible to eat a nutcracker bird? The answer is quite simple - you can.
A fairly clean bird, it mainly feeds on pine nuts, acorns, pine and spruce seeds. During the hungry period, the nutcracker can also eat berries, insects and small vertebrates.
According to hunters, nutcracker is quite edible. Poultry meat is dark and quite tough. A significant difference between meat is that it smells like nuts and pine. When cooked, it feels like the bird is being cooked in a nut sauce.
Belongs to the family of corvids. In the Alps, the nutcracker feeds on cedar seeds, and on the plains, on hazelnuts. Description of the bird with video and photo
Squad - Passeriformes
Family - Corvids
Genus/Species - Nucifraga caryocatactes
Basic data:
DIMENSIONS
Height: 30-33 cm.
Wingspan: 54-56 cm.
Weight: 160-180 g.
REPRODUCTION
Nesting period: March-May.
Number of eggs: 3-4 light blue eggs with gray-brown spots.
Incubation: 16-20 days.
LIFESTYLE
Habits: flies slowly, flapping its wings unevenly.
Food: coniferous tree seeds, nuts; during the nesting period - insects, worms, eggs.
RELATED SPECIES
Close relatives of the nutcracker are the American nutcracker and the Siberian nutcracker.
In winter, the northern mountain forests are hungry, so many birds living here are forced to seek refuge in more southern areas, where there is sufficient food. Winter is not scary for cedars, because in the summer, like jays, they make winter reserves, which they feed on for several winter months.
WHAT DOES IT EAT?
Nutcrackers feed on insects, small vertebrates, fruits, berries, and seeds. The seeds of coniferous trees and the nuts they feed on are much higher in calories than insects. Insects, like food of animal origin, contain a lot of protein, but to survive in the frosty winter, birds need energy, which they get from carbohydrates. Nutcrackers that live in the south of the Scandinavian Peninsula feed mainly on hazelnuts. In other places, birds eat the seeds of coniferous trees - alpine nutcrackers, for example, love pine nuts. Obtaining tasty seeds from cones and nut kernels is not a difficult task for nutcrackers. She takes out seeds from the scales of cones with a thin long beak, and smashes the nuts against a tree or stone. Some birds, as a result of prolonged feeding on the seeds of certain plants, have developed a special beak shape. Nutcracker chicks need animal protein, so their parents feed them insects.
LIVING PLACE
The nutcracker is a characteristic inhabitant of the taiga. It is found in taiga-type forests in Europe and Asia from Scandinavia and the Alps to Japan and China.
The bird prefers spruce, cedar and cedar-schist forests. In coniferous forests, nutcrackers find their main food - seeds, which are obtained from pine, spruce and cedar cones. But most of all these birds love nuts.
In mountain forests, the living conditions of birds change depending on the time of year. From late spring to autumn, nutcrackers find quite a lot of food here: nuts and berries ripen, insects breed. However, when the first snow falls, the berries and nuts are gone, and the insects have died out or hid in inaccessible places. From the beginning of winter until spring, it is impossible to find food in the coniferous forest, so most other bird species fly south. However, nutcrackers remain here. The birds have developed a survival strategy - they behave like squirrels: in the summer, nutcrackers make supplies for the winter. Birds hide provisions in numerous underground “storerooms”.
REPRODUCTION
Nutcrackers are monogamous birds that form pairs for life. During the mating period, they try not to catch anyone’s eye and always nest within their territory. During nesting, the nutcracker leads a secretive lifestyle. Her nest is a jumbled pile of twigs, grass, moss and lichens held together with clay. It is placed on a coniferous tree at a height of 4-6 meters. Since the nutcracker does not experience a shortage of food in winter, it begins nesting quite early. Often a bird builds a nest when there is still snow around and the air temperature is below zero.
Both partners incubate the clutch. This is a rather unusual phenomenon for birds of the corvid family, but quite reasonable, since the male nutcracker does not know where the female’s storerooms are, and his reserves alone would hardly be enough for the two of them. Birds replace each other in the nest to give the partner the opportunity to refresh themselves. Nutcrackers also feed their chicks with seeds, which are first softened in the crop. When winter food supplies are exhausted, parents begin to bring insects to the chicks, often caught outside their own territory. After the chicks fly, the parents feed them for three months.
FEATURES OF THE DEVICE
Throughout the summer, the nutcracker is busy collecting seeds of coniferous trees and nuts, which it hides in hiding places known only to itself, which it subsequently visits during the hungry winter season. The bird fills the throat sac with seeds and nuts, in which they are glued together with saliva and turned into a lump of homogeneous mass.
The nutcracker collects seeds only on its territory, which has clearly defined boundaries. The bird buries food in the ground, carefully camouflaging the pantry, and flies off in search of seeds for the next cache. After some time, the nutcracker finds hidden reserves with incredible accuracy. As a result of the experiment, it was found that the nutcracker “remembers” 86% of its reserves.
GENERAL PROVISIONS
In Ukraine, it is called hazelnut - because due to the lack of cedar pines, nutcrackers here feed on hazel seeds.
A small bird, no larger than a jay, from the corvid family. It is found in mixed and coniferous forests of Eurasia, most of all in cedar forests. Pine nuts are the main food of the nutcracker all year round. In fruitful years, the nutcracker extracts seeds from the cones and hides them in the most secret places, and then lives for a long time at the expense of supplies, since cedar pines do not bear fruit every year. It has now been established that birds are the main friend of cedar pines, since a significant part of the seeds hidden by nutcrackers in the ground germinate. In addition, birds carry seeds over a considerable distance. Other animals, including bears, also use nutcracker supplies. They feed the chicks with insects and crushed seeds.
- It is still unknown how nutcrackers find their hiding places. Some believe that they navigate by smell, but this method does not work during heavy snowfalls. Most likely, birds remember the places where their “storerooms” are located.
- When there is a failure in the harvest of pine nuts and seeds of coniferous trees in the Siberian taiga, nutcrackers make mass migrations to the west in search of new sources of food. In such lean years, Eastern and Central Europe are filled with flocks of these slender-billed Siberian birds.
- Parents incubate the chicks together because the birds begin nesting early and require food.
- If a nutcracker, which is burying supplies, notices that it is being watched, it will try to disguise the cache.
CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF KEDROVKA
Eggs: 3-4 light blue or pale green eggs covered with gray and brown spots.
Wings: rounded, dark brown or black. In flight, white spots are visible on the wings below.
Beak: long and strong. With its help, the nutcracker extracts seeds from the cones and breaks the nuts.
Throat: Several dozen nuts can be placed in the throat sac of the nutcracker.
- Habitat of the nutcracker
WHERE DOES IT LIVE?
The nutcracker lives in the coniferous forests of Central and South-Eastern Europe, in Siberia to Kamchatka and Sakhalin. An isolated population lives in the mountains of South Asia.
PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION
Coniferous forests grow faster than deciduous forests, but they are also threatened by fires, logging and pollution, the consequences of which affect these bird populations.
Kedrovka. Brateevograd. Video (00:01:26)
In Brateevo and Maryino it is found only during migrations. We saw a small flock in winter on Saburovsky Descent to the Moscow River. Apparently I was late with my flight...
Nutcracker hides nuts. The nutcracker hides nuts. Video (00:02:34)
December 2010, This winter the nutcracker overwintered in the Main Botanical Garden in Moscow. What's surprising is that she wasn't afraid of people and let them get close to her quite...
Kedrovka. Video (00:00:45)
Neighborhoods of Krasnoyarsk, February 2014. A nutcracker rests on the branches of a birch tree.
Nutcracker and pike! Video (00:01:23)
The nutcracker, a taiga bird, wanted to eat and dragged away the pike I caught from under the ice.
The nutcracker hides, the jay searches. Video (00:00:59)
In November 2010, I saw this picture: Kedrovka took the nut and went to hide it. The jay noticed this and flew after the nutcracker. While the nutcracker is hidden...
Kedrovka / Birds. Video (00:00:23)
Krasnoyarsk/Stolby.
Nutcracker, showdown with a squirrel over a nut. Video (00:00:20)
There are many interesting animals and birds in the taiga, many of which are known to most people only by their species name. One of them is nutcracker. This bird lives in deep forests, and therefore even few people know about its appearance. Our article will correct this misunderstanding.
In appearance, the nutcracker strongly resembles a jackdaw, but its beak is longer and thinner, and its body is denser. The wings are very short and quite wide, and therefore the flight of this bird is not graceful.
You can often see her sitting motionless on the tops of trees and on long branches. In a word, the nutcracker is a “homebody” bird and is not adapted to long flights.
The appearance of the bird is dominated by dark brown coloring, alternating with white spots that are absent on the top of the head. The tip of the tail is decorated with a wide white border. It is difficult to distinguish a female from a male by appearance: the female is almost the same size, only its color is slightly paler, and the white spots are less pronounced.
The bird fully justifies its name - “nutcracker”: in the taiga it feeds almost exclusively on cedar nuts, which its beak, well adapted for this purpose, helps it get from the cones. Note that she does not wait for them to ripen, but prefers to peck the cones at the stage of milky ripeness. But when the nuts are ripe, the birds begin working time. They peck out selected food down to the last grain, stuff their crops with nuts, and then hide them in remote corners of the forest.
Not only nutcrackers are interested in this valuable product. Birds compete with squirrels, other birds, as well as hedgehogs and even sables, which are also not averse to trying fresh nuts!
You need to know that these birds have an excellent memory. Sometimes they find their reserves in the middle of winter, digging to them through almost a meter-thick layer of dense snow! Nevertheless, they still forget about part of the “stash”, and these subsequently give rise to new cedar thickets.
In general, the nutcracker is a rather fragile bird (photos confirm this), “armed” only with thin legs, and therefore it has to dig up nuts only with the help of its long beak. She does this in an interesting way: moving it in a lateral direction, the bird shovels away the snow, gradually getting to the treat.
This activity is potentially dangerous for the bird, since it can be grabbed by a predator at any moment. Therefore, she does not spend all the time in her snow hole, often jumping out to the surface and surveying the approach paths.
However, this does not always help her. Domestic scientists said that it is not difficult to fool a careless bird: you just need to approach it carefully on skis, from time to time freezing in one place. After approaching closely, a nutcracker can be caught with just a hat.
The cedar population largely depends on the number of this bird. Have you ever picked nuts out of its pine cones? If yes, then you probably remember how hard and dense their plates are. It is almost impossible for young cedar sprouts to get through them. In addition, the cone is heavy, and therefore falls only under the crown of the parent tree. Thus, if these birds are gone, cedars may eventually disappear from the forests.
So you have learned about what the nutcracker eats and how it does it, as well as how useful the activities of this little bird are!