Birds · Passeriformes · Corvidae

Northern Nutcracker

Nucifraga caryocatactes

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The northern nutcracker is a brown corvid speckled with white spots, with a white-tipped tail. Its life revolves around storing seeds: in autumn it collects thousands of Swiss stone pine nuts or hazelnuts and buries them in individual caches spread over kilometres of forest, which it then recovers beneath the snow thanks to an extraordinary spatial memory. Those it does not recover germinate, and much of the regeneration of the Alpine Swiss stone pine depends on it.

Weight

130 g – 200 g

Size

32 cm – 35 cm

Lifespan

15 years

Diet

Omnivore

Combines animal and plant food depending on availability.

Activity

Diurnal

Active mainly during the day.

Social structure

In pairs

Usually lives in pairs, sometimes for life.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

Temperate forestMountainTundraOmnivore Diurnal In pairs Bird Temperate forest Mountain Tundra

16countries 86parks12same family

Fun facts

GeneralIt hides as many as 30,000 pine seeds a year and remembers where most of them are.
It buries tens of thousands of seeds every autumn in individual caches and recovers most of them months later, even under a metre of snow, guided by landmarks: it is one of the greatest feats of spatial memory documented in any animal.
The Swiss stone pine of the Alps depends on it to reproduce: its seeds do not fly, and without the nutcracker's forgotten caches the stone pine forest would not regenerate.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)
Habitat & environment: Mountain coniferous forest and taiga with Swiss pine or hazel in Europe and Asia
Sexual maturity: 12 months
Gestation / incubation: 18 days of incubation
Litter / clutch size: 3 eggs

Sources consulted: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_nutcracker