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Montane corvids


telyt

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That's Jays in the mountains for most of us. I visited the mountains SW of Reno Nevada last weekend where cones of the Sugar Pine trees were opening and dropping seeds.

 

Several species take advantage of the pine nuts; Pinyon Jays (no photos) hover by the cones and, looking into the opening cones, pick out the exposed pine nuts. Clark's Nutcrackers perch on the cones and hammer them apart, woodpecker-style.

 

clnu00.jpg

 

clnu01.jpg

 

Steller's Jays have neither the hovering skills of the Pinyon Jays nor the powerful bills of the Clark's Nutcracker; their technique is to perch below the cone and (I presume) look for seeds in the cone; targeting the seed, they fly up and smash into the cone to dislodge the seed.

 

stja02.jpg

 

Technical stuff: R8/DMR, 560mm f/6.8+1.4x APO-Extender-R, shoulder stock & monopod, ISO 400.

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