Pine jay
| Pine jay | ||||||||||||
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Blue jay ( Nucifraga caryocatactes ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Nucifraga caryocatactes | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The Nutcracker ( Nucifraga caryocatactes ) is a songbird art from the family of corvids (Corvidae). With a body length of 22 to 33 cm, it is a medium-sized member of its family, which is characterized by its black-brown, white-spotted plumage and a long, chisel-shaped beak. The range of the species extends from Japan over large parts of the temperate Eurasia to the western Alps . It is tied to a few species of plants, the seeds of which birds feed on. Pine jays mainly inhabit boreal and montane conifer forests . Over the summer and autumn, they store several thousand seed-holding stocks in the forest floor, which they feed on during the winter. Most of the year the blue jay lives in pairs or small family groups.
features
With a body length of 22 to 33 centimeters , the pine jay is smaller than the blue jay and has a similarly undulating, rather undynamic flight. However, he seems less awkward than that. The tail of the pine jay is significantly shorter and the head larger than that of the jay. The pine jay has a wingspan of 50 to 58 centimeters and weighs 120 to 170 grams. The trunk is dark brown and covered with many white spots, on each feather of the small plumage there are white wedge marks, except on the head cap and the tail covers. This allows it to look gray from a distance and remind you of the star . The strong beak is light gray, the feathers at its base are white, the head cap and upper tail-covers are black-brown. The white under tail coverts are particularly noticeable. Males and females are colored the same.
voice
Jays rarely make vocalizations. Their call is a very typical, elongated and hard-rolled "krrrrääh", which can often be heard during the breeding season , which sounds almost like a machine and is often repeated in quick succession. This call is longer, thinner, higher and more even in pitch than that of the carrion crow . Sometimes a soft “jäk” or “kja” reminiscent of the jackdaw can be called out. The singing is softly chattering, with grating and harsh sounds that are reminiscent of the magpie .
Habitat and Distribution
Pine jays occur mainly in areas rich in coniferous forests . Their distribution is closely linked to areas with spruce and Swiss stone pine ( Swiss stone pine in the Alps and the closely related Siberian sister species) or hazelnuts . They are found in southern Scandinavia , southern Finland , the Baltic states and from Poland via Siberia to northeast China and Japan . In Germany they are widespread in the low mountain ranges and in the Alps , and also over the entire Alpine region, the Balkans and the Caucasus .
food
In the summer the blue jay lives mainly on insects and also eats lizards , frogs, bird eggs and nestlings . In late summer it feeds on berries. In winter it mainly eats the seeds of conifers . He prefers to take the seeds of the stone pine, the stone pine nuts, but also hazelnuts. In autumn, pine cays also appear in the valleys to eat hazelnuts or to harvest as winter supplies. You are not shy about it. When you eat a hazelnut you hold it with one foot and split it with a few strokes of the beak. They also crack the nuts of the stone pine with their very powerful beak.
Winter supplies
In summer and autumn, deposits of stone pine and hazelnuts are created in the ground. To do this, the jay chops a hole in the ground and expands it by unlocking its beak, the so-called compasses . Then he deposits a whole crop full of stone pine nuts (over 100) or other tree fruits in it, e.g. B. up to 14 hazelnuts. Then the hole is covered again. Every blue jay creates thousands of seed hiding places for winter storage. Without having to look for long, he finds 80 percent of these hiding spots very easily, even with high snow cover. To this day it is not known how exactly the pine jay recognizes the depots that it set up in autumn through the snow.
behavior
The most noticeable and easiest to spot are the pine jays in autumn. When the hazelnuts are ripe, they come to the gardens to eat or carry the nuts away in order to store supplies for the winter. Otherwise they are rather secret. In harsh winters, the birds migrate to warmer areas to forage, but they are actually annual birds . In some years with a high population density and autumn food shortages, the Russian subspecies ( N. c. Macrorhynchos ), recognizable by their narrow beak, migrates to Europe, especially in the north and the Baltic Sea area. The last major invasions in Central Europe took place in 1968, 1977 and 1985.
Reproduction
The nests are built high up in conifers near the trunk early in the year. Spruce, Swiss stone pine or other pines are preferred, and less often larches . 3 to 4 young are raised per brood. The incubation period is 16 to 21 days, the nestling period 21 to 25 days.
Systematics
The pine jay is one of three types of the nutcracker ( Nucifraga ), the other types are the pine jay ( N. columbiana ) and the Himalayan jay ( Nucifraga multipunctata ) , which is common in western North America .
There are eight subspecies of the pine jay:
- Nucifraga c. caryocatactes ( Linnaeus , 1758) - the nominate form, occurs in Europe
- Nucifraga c. macrorhynchos C. L. Brehm , 1823 - occurs from the Urals to the east
- Nucifraga c. rothschildi Hartert , 1903 - comes in Tian Shan ago
- Nucifraga c. japonicus Hartert , 1897 - comes in Japan before
- Nucifraga c. interdicta Kleinschmidt & Weigold , 1922
- Nucifraga c. macella Thayer & Bangs , 1909
- Nucifraga c. hemispila Vigors , 1831 - these three species occur in the Himalayas before
- Nucifraga c. owstoni Ingram , 1910 - comes to Taiwan before
Etymology of the name
The scientific name is a tautology : Both parts of the name mean something like ' nut breaker' ( Nucifraga consists of nux 'nut' and frangere 'break' and is of Latin origin, caryocatactes consists of karuon 'nut' and katagnunai 'break' and is of Greek origin ).
The German name Tannenhächer is at least misleading as far as the main food is concerned: The cones of the fir species disintegrate on the tree in contrast to those of other conifer species. The pine jay , on the other hand, feeds primarily on stone pine seeds , which it breaks out of the cones at places known as Swiss stone pine . Firs, along with other conifer species, are used by the common pine as a nesting place, but only occur in a small part of the range of the bird species.
Sources and References
literature
- H.-G. Bauer, E. Bezzel, W. Fiedler : The compendium of birds in Central Europe. Everything about biology, endangerment and protection. Volume 2: Passeriformes - passerine birds. 2. completely revised Ed., AULA-Verlag, Wiebelsheim 2005, ISBN 3-89104-648-0 .
- Dieter Glandt: Kolkrabe & Co. AULA-Verlag, Wiebelsheim; 2012. ISBN 978-3-89104-760-6 , pp. 101-105
- L. Svensson, PJ Grant, K. Mullarney, D. Zetterström: The new cosmos bird guide - All species of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co., Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-440-07720-9 .
Web links
- Nucifraga caryocatactes in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 31 of 2009.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Nucifraga caryocatactes in the Internet Bird Collection
- Feathers of the pine jay
Individual evidence
- ↑ Limbrunner, A., Bezzel, E., Richarz, K .: Encyclopedia of Breeding Birds in Europe . In: Kosmos . 2007.
- ↑ Pühringer et al. (2000): Two new observations of the Siberian pine jam ( Nucifraga caryocatactes macrorhynchos ) in Austria. Egretta 43: 69-72.
- ↑ Haffer, J. (1993): Nucifraga caryocatactes ( Linnaeus 1758) - Tannenhäser. In: Glutz von Blotzheim et al. (Ed.): Handbook of the birds of Central Europe. Volume 13: 1513-1570.
- ↑ The Feathered Forester on waldwissen.net