(Nucifraga caryocatactes), a bird of the family Corvidae of the order Passeriformes. The body measures approximately 35 cm long. The plumage is dark brown spotted with white. The nutcracker is distributed in the coniferous forests of Europe and Asia. In the USSR it lives in the taiga zone and the forests of Tien-Shan. In winter it makes short migrations. It feeds on seeds, mainly those of the nut pine and fir, on insects, and occasionally on rodents. During years of poor conifer seed yield, the nutcracker makes massive migrations. The bird nests in trees in dense forests. The female lays three to four, rarely five, speckled eggs, which hatch in 20 days. The nutcracker, in eating numerous seeds from the nut pine, promotes the nut pine’s spread as well as growth over burned and felled areas, since it stores the seeds in the ground.