just recently on a visit to Oslo i had the unexpected pleasure of coming very close to a bird i had never seen before. i was a bit perplexed at first because it was in an open park which is not a typical place to find unusual birds. i could tell immediately by it's beak, tail and stance it was in the crow family but the spotted body made me think about starlings. but obviously it couldn't be a cross between a crow and a starling- i had to do a little research when i got the chance. meanwhile i was surprised how close we were. with the spots and brown body it blended in with the fallen leaves and my attention was focused elsewhere so i didn't even notice it until it was right in front of me and not making any effort to get away. i thought that perhaps people feed them- if so that would explain why it wasn't shy.
so back home i got time to look up the bird in my guide book. i soon found as expected that it was a member of the crow family, Northern Nutcracker Nucifraga caryocatactes. both of the scientific names mean nutcracker but i read that it's main diet was pine nuts. while pine trees are quite common, there weren't many exactly where i was but then i noticed that there was an acorn under its foot in the photo so i assumed it was feeding on acorns- holding an acorn with its foot and cracking it open with its powerful beak. in the book there was no mention of acorns in the diet but fuglevennen.no confirmed the obvious.
Northern Nutcrackers have a normal range across northern Europe and Asia all the way to Japan but the westernmost edge reaches only a small section of Norway, in the southeast which includes Oslo. that helps explain why i have never seen them before. they gather seeds, especially pine nuts in the autumn and store them in underground caches spread out throughout a wide area. they nest early in the spring and feed their young with the stored seed. not all the seeds that the nutcrackers stored away for the winter get eaten and enough of those sprout and grow.
"Nucifraga caryocatactes plays a critical mutualistic role in forest regeneration and reforestation across the Palearctic taiga and mountain ecosystems. Because many large-seeded conifers produce heavy seeds that cannot be dispersed by the wind, they rely entirely on the nutcracker to expand and sustain their populations" https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/eurnut3/cur/introduction
so let's give a little love and respect to these fine feathered friends.