English: Spotted Nutcracker, Eurasian Nutcracker        
Russian: Кедровка, Ореховка
Mongolian: Бидэрт самарчшаазгай, Самарч шаазгай  
German: Tannenhaher   
French: Cassenoix mouchete   
Japanese: ホシガラス (Hoshi-garasu)

Body length: 32-35 cm
Wing swan: 49-53 cm

Breeds almost exclusively in areas with easy access to spruce forests for nesting and rich supply of either hazel or arolla pine for winter food stores. Nuts and seeds are cached in the ground layer during late summer-autumn, and nut depots are memorized in detail and can be re-found in winter with great accuracy, even beneath thick snow cover. European breeders (ssp. caryocatactes), vigilant and shy, are residents. In some years, when in Siberia the arolla pine’s seed crop is poor, large flocks of the slender-billed race (macrorhynchos) of E Russia and Siberia can move in early autumn all the way to W and C Europe, there appearing both tame and bold; local breeding populations have then been established in Fenno-Scandia and even in C Europe. Omnivorous in summer. Nests in dense conifer close to trunk. Early breeder.

Identification: Size of a Jay but with quite different proportions: tail is short (best feature in flight) and bill long and powerful. Head is more elongate than Jay’s and lacks hint of crest. Plumage is dark brown and sprinkled with small white spots; crown and greater part of wings are, by contrast, unspotted brownish-black. Wings broad and rounded. Flight direct, often high up, with fluttering, slightly hesitant wingbeats recalling Jay. From below, shows contrastingly white vent and white tail-tip. Sexes alike and ages similar.

Variation: In Europe, bill is heavier (thicker base) and tail has narrower white tip. In Siberian race macrorhynchos, bill is more uniformly narrow and average a trifle longer, and tail has broader white tip.