ML72496191
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
Minimum exact count. At least 8-10 birds visible throughout the count period, within a 20 m radius. Seen actively feeding on Ponderosa Pine cones on the ground and on horizontal Aspen and Ponderosa limbs. Noted birds flying to perches carrying cones in their bills; using their bills to turn a cone apparently to a side not yet probed; and typically making loud wing flaps when taking off. At one point I heard one nutcracker make a rapid series of at least 4 rough "krah" calls, and all the birds on the ground immediately flew up. Within less than 30 seconds several had flown back down - I suspected that the call functioned as an alarm, but was apparently a false alarm. Later, I observed 1 nutcracker fly in to where another had been working on a cone for several minutes and displace the sedentary bird. The displaced bird perched on an Aspen limb 1-2 m higher and made a loud downslurred "peeur" call several times. The displacer poked halfheartedly at the cone, then moved on, leaving it propped in a fork of the horizontal Aspen branch. I did not observe any caching behavior, though there was definitely some movement of birds to and from the aspen grove. I got some excellent videos of birds feeding on cones. Review of some of the footage shows the birds using their feet to manipulate and hold a cone while stabbing at it with their bill, using an outward prying motion to open cone scales. In some of the footage, birds are seen consuming several seeds, one at a time. Were they perhaps filling their sublingual pouch, then departing to cache seeds elsewhere?
Technical information
- Model
- COOLPIX P900
- ISO
- 640
- Focal length
- 268 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire, auto
- f-stop
- f/6.3
- Shutter speed
- 1/125 sec
- Dimensions
- 4321 pixels x 3453 pixels
- Original file size
- 1.59 MB