Clark's nutcracker

American  

Or Clark nutcracker

noun

1. a nutcracker, Nucifraga columbiana, of western North America, having pale gray plumage and black and white wings and tail.

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Etymology

Origin of Clark's nutcracker

1910–15, named after William Clark; see nutcracker

Example Sentences

They are considered a “keystone” species other plants and animals depend on for survival, and their edible seeds are spread almost exclusively by a bird, the Clark’s nutcracker.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 14, 2022

At Brush Creek near Snowmass, we spotted the Clark’s nutcracker along with three kinds of jays — the Steller’s, Woodhouse’s scrub-jay and the pinyon — and large flocks of chatty, yellow-streaked pine siskins.

From New York Times • Dec. 3, 2022

Or it could have been planted by a bird known as the Clark’s nutcracker, which likes to hide pine seeds in caches; nutcrackers have phenomenal spatial memory and can recall thousands of such caches.

From The New Yorker • Jan. 13, 2020

They provide food for birds like the Clark’s nutcracker, which, in turn, create whitebark pine nurseries by caching nuts.

From New York Times • Nov. 15, 2018

"Jim Crow" shuns the mountains for reasons satisfactory to himself; not so the magpie, the raven, and that mischief-maker, Clark's nutcracker.

From Birds of the Rockies by Keyser, Leander S. (Leander Sylvester)