Nutcracker

The Nutcracker is a little smaller than the Eurasian Jackdaw and also it has thinner and longer bill. The Nutcracker is a typical forest bird, it skilfully hops in conifers and sometimes hangs on for-cones. The Nutcracker is one of the most characteristic birds of taiga, but in Estonia it can be seen in Saaremaa, western and central Estonia. There are a few pairs also in the forests of Alutaguse. The Nutcracker prefers thick marshy spruce fir forests or mixed fir forests. Usually it does not wander around.

The Nutcracker begins to build the nest in the thickest forest it can find at the beginning of March. Hiding itself in this thicket it does not leave anywhere during hatching time. The nest is usually situated not higher than 6 metres in a spruce fir and it consists of twigs and springs outside and there is softer material inside. The eggs are light blue with greenish, greyish and brownish pattern. The female bird hatches the eggs beginning after laying the first or second egg. The young are altricial and leave the nest in about three weeks. After that they remain in the neighbourhood of the nest till the end of summer when they move further away.

The Nutcracker mainly feeds on the seeds of conifers and various insects. It also loves hazel nuts and therefore it can often be seen in hazel coppice when hazel nuts are ripe but it does not live there at other times. The Nutcracker stores nuts for winter under mosses and lichens, bark and hollows in trees. In winter it feeds on stored food making deep passages under snow, sometimes these are even up to 60 centimetres. Some stores are left undetected and the seeds begin to sprout. Thus the Nutcracker plays an important role in spreading hazels.

The Nutcracker is under protection.