Eurasian nutcracker

The Eurasian Nutcracker is n ot one of the most seldom birds but still it is very difficult to find it here in Austria. But since most of the individuals live in Russia, Sweden and Poland as well as in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The distribution of the population that can be found in the Alps is often not so easy to photograph. Since you need to get a little bit higher in the mountain forests to be able to find it. I was lucky and could get some really closeup pictures of this bird and I am very proud of it, since it extends my list of different bird species that I could see and photograph.

The Eurasian nutcracker feeds on seeds and pines as well as different kinds of nuts that it finds in the forests. In Russia and Asia it is usually more distributed than in Europe. On one of my hiking trips to the Alps here in Austria I had the luck to get pretty close to the bird and I was able to take some pictures of it without it fleeing. These birds are non migratory birds so they should be here in Austria on some alp regions the whole year round.

Eurasian Nutcracker searching the moss. Picture: Florian Glechner.