JAYS AND MAGPIES: Family Corvidae [ 43 1 ] 



be a common breeding bird of the juniper forests. Once the colonies are 

 located, it is not difficult to find nests. Braly and his companions found 

 as many as 14 in a single day, and between April 9 and 2.1, 1931, Braly 

 found 76 nests in the mixed yellow pine and juniper forests in the vicinity 

 of Redmond and Grandview. The nests contained from three to five 

 eggs each, mostly four, and were located from 4 to 85 feet above the 

 ground, most of them at 2.0 feet or less. The lower nests were usually 

 built in juniper trees; the higher ones, in yellow pine, ordinarily 10 to 15 

 feet out from the trunk on a large limb. According to Braly, the males 

 regularly fed in a loose flock one-quarter to three-quarters of a mile from 

 the nests and carried food to the incubating females, usually perching on 

 top of a tree 40 or 50 feet from the nest and calling the females from the 

 nest. After feeding their mates the males flew directly back to the feeding 

 ground. 



Clark's Nutcracker: 



Nucifraga columbiana (Wilson) 



DESCRIPTION.- "Bill cylindrical, nostrils concealed by a tuft of feathers; wings long 

 and pointed, folding to the end of tail; tail little over half as long as wing; tarsus 

 shorter than middle toe and claw; claws large, sharp, and much curved. Adults: 

 Body ash gray, whiter on forehead and chin; wings black, with white patch on 

 secondaries; tail with middle feathers black, outer ones white. Young: similar, but 

 colors duller and upper parts brownish gray; under parts brownish ash indistinctly 

 barred. Length: 1^-13, wing 7.10-8.00, tail 5.10-5.40." (Bailey) Nest: In conifers, 

 usually 8 to 40 feet from the ground, built of twigs and lined with shredded bark, 

 dry grass, etc. Eggs: 3 to 5, pale green, slightly spotted with tiny dots of brown 

 and gray. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from southern Alaska, Alberta, and western South 

 Dakota to Lower California, Arizona, and New Mexico. In Oregon: Regular per- 

 manent resident of Blue Mountains, Cascades, Siskiyous, and Warner Mountains, 

 straggling to other isolated ranges. Known in coast mountains as a straggler only. 



THIS STRIKING black and white crow r , Clark's Nutcracker, is associated 

 in the minds of most of us with the timber-line forests of spruce and pine. 

 There it sits on the treetops observing and scolding the intruder, event- 

 ually to take swift wing across a canyon or to a distant tree. It is a high- 

 mountain bird but also can be found lower down in the yellow pine 

 forests and the scattered groves of juniper over the higher plateaus. It 

 is an abundant bird in our major ranges, such as the Cascades and Blue 

 Mountains. Audubon (1839) listed it as a common bird in the Blue 

 Mountains, and Newberry (1857) considered it common in the Cascades 

 between 4,000 and 10,000 feet, a statement that still describes its status 

 in that region. Several fall specimens have been taken on Hart Moun- 

 tain, but it has not yet been recorded from the Steens Mountains. It has 

 been found a number of times on the coast of western Lane County. 

 Harry Telford collected a specimen there on November n, 1913 (Jewett 



