BY HANNES THUM
One of my favorite local bird species is the Clark’s nutcracker. This wily bird has a fascinating relationship with our local whitebark pine in which the nutcracker plays an indispensable role in the reproduction of the trees.
Clark’s nutcrackers store food for winter and they spend their time in the summer and autumn months flying around and raiding tree cones (most importantly, in our region, from the whitebark pine) to access the “nuts” (seeds, actually) and then storing them in small caches dug into the ground. Clark’s nutcrackers, members of the same Corvid family that hosts the well-studied brainpower of crows and ravens), have been shown to have amazing abilities to faithfully recall the locations of thousands of these buried seed caches throughout the lean months in order to keep themselves fed when food is otherwise scarce.
The core mechanism of the relationship with the whitebark pine is that these birds, despite their incredible spatial intelligence and their ability to keep track of a huge number of caches and find the seeds within them even months later, don’t return to every cache. The forgotten caches, containing maybe a small handful of seeds each, can grow into new whitebark pine seedlings. And, in fact, this is the primary way that whitebark pines disperse and reproduce; they do so poorly or not at all without the birds. In that sense, the bird and the tree are completely intertwined. The existence and health of one has come to rely on the existence and health of the other.
The first clue that you may be looking at a Clark’s nutcracker, if you were so inclined to try, is your location. They are one of the most conspicuous birds in high-elevation whitebark pine habitat, and their size (about the same size as a magpie or a small crow, for instance), as well as their coloration (mostly grey, with banded black and white wings), sets them apart from most of their peers. They have a long, pointed bill, which helps them specialize in the raiding of tree cones, and their wings will flash white in flight (these traits can help you distinguish them from a similar-looking bird, the gray jay).
If you see a Clark’s nutcracker this spring, take a few minutes to watch it and see if you might develop an appreciation for the intricate relationships that you can find right in our backyards in our local mountains.