Clark's Nutcracker - Nucifraga columbiana
Clark’s Nutcrackers are the size of a jay but the shape of a crow, with short tails and rounded, crestless heads. The bill is long, straight, and sharp-tipped. Clark’s Nutcrackers are pale gray birds with black wings. In flight, the wings show large white patches along the trailing edges. The tail is black in the center with broad white along either side. Nutcrackers have black bills, legs, and feet.
Habitat: I saw this one at Crater Lake in Oregon. Clark’s Nutcrackers are birds of the mountains. They are closely associated with pines that produce large seeds, such as whitebark pine and limber pine, but are also found in other montane evergreen forests from about 3,000 to more than 11,000 feet in the West.
Clark's nutcracker, sometimes referred to as Clark's crow or woodpecker crow, is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae. It is slightly smaller than its Eurasian relative the spotted nutcracker. It is ashy-grey all over except for the black-and-white wings and central tail feathers. The bill, legs and feet are also black. This bird derives its name from the explorer William Clark.
