The Wyoming Biodiversity Minute

Episode 2. The Clark's Nutcracker

This WyoBio Minute was written and narrated by Sara Kirkpatrick.This WyoBio Minute was written and narrated by Sara Kirkpatrick.

This episode of the WyoBio Minute introduces you to the Clark's Nutcracker, sometimes referred to as Clark's crow or woodpecker crow. Living high in the mountains of the West, gray-and-black Clark’s Nutcrackers dart among aging pine trees, flashing white in the tail and wing. They use their specially evolved bills to open pine cones and pull out the seeds hidden inside, which they stash in a pouch under their tongue and then bury for winter food. Each birds buries thousands of seeds each summer and can amazingly recall the locations of most of them. Seeds they don’t retrieve play an important role in establishing new trees.

Image: © Steven Pavlov, via Wikimedia Commons