The Spotted Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes) is an unmistakable chocolate-brown crow relative covered in dense white spots, found in hazel-rich deciduous forests across southern and central Sweden. It measures 32–35 cm in length, has a wingspan of 49–53 cm and weighs 150–190 grams — roughly the size of a jackdaw but more heavily built. The wings and tail are blackish-brown without spotting, the tail shows a white band visible in flight, and the undertail coverts are white and conspicuous as the bird climbs about in trees. The powerful, straight black bill is built for hacking hazelnuts out of their shells. Two forms occur in Sweden: the resident nominate race with a shorter bill tied to hazel, and a longer, more curve-billed Siberian race that specialises in pine seeds and occasionally arrives in large numbers from the east.
The species is best known for its extraordinary memory: each autumn a single bird caches 20,000–30,000 hazelnuts, one at a time, burying them 2–5 cm deep across hundreds of locations within a territory of several square kilometres, then relocates 70–90 percent of them later — even under snow — thanks to exceptional spatial recall documented in behavioural studies. Its call is a hard, rolling "krrr-krrr-krrr," with a softer "krra-krra" used between paired birds. Sweden holds an estimated 5,000–10,000 breeding pairs, concentrated in provinces such as Uppland, Södermanland and Östergötland, and the species breeds unusually early, from January to March, drawing on its autumn caches to feed nestlings. In certain irruption years — documented in 1968, 1985, 1995 and 2008 — the Siberian race arrives in Sweden by the thousand when pine seed crops fail further east, turning up far outside its usual hazel woodland habitat.
Read about this species in Swedish →