Due to heavy reconstruction of this webpage, this blog is temporary suspended to renew in this summer, it will be updated again after late-autumn, thank you for your visits in these 9 years.

29 November 2014

Eurasian Nutcracker

Nutcracker (星鴉)
Switzerland (2014)

4th September, 2014. Goldau

Eurasian Nutcracker is a passerine bird slightly larger than the Eurasian jay. It has a much larger bill and a slimmer looking head without any crest. The feathering over its body is predominantly a chocolate brown with distinct white spots and streaks. The wings and upper tail are virtually black with a greenish-blue gloss. It is one of three species of nutcracker. The Large-spotted Nutcracker (Nucifraga multipunctata), was formerly considered a subspecies. The other, Clark's Nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana), occurs in western North America.

It is a dark brown, broad-winged, short-tailed corvid. Body plumage is mid to dark chocolate brown, heavily spotted with white on face, neck, mantle and underparts. It has a large white loral spot, a white eye-ring, blackish brown cap extending onto the nape, dark blackish wings with a greenish-blue gloss, all white vent, and dark tail with white corners above and a white terminal band on the undertail. In flight, broad wings, white vent and short tail are noticeable; the flight undulating. The black bill is slender and rather long, sharply pointed, and varies in size amongst races. The iris, legs and feet are black.

Nutcracker (星鴉)
Switzerland (2014)

4th September, 2014. Bern

Nutcracker (星鴉)
Switzerland (2014)

4th September, 2014. Goldau

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