[All pictures of garden wildlife on this page are thumbnails. Click on any thumbnail for a large format to be displayed.]

Notenkraker (Nucifraga caryocatactes)

Clickhere for the bird's sound.

In Holland this is quite a rare bird that only shows up from Eastern Europe during certain winters. We have seen it only once in our previous garden in Zutphen in 1990. It wasn't at our feeding table, but was eating something out of the firtree in our front garden. Like some other birds this one hoards seeds, thus spreading the seed all over the place. And that's what trees make seeds for, isn't it?

This bird belongs to the family of Crows (Corvidae). It is a very rare bird in our garden and can be seen in Holland october - february. The bird is 13" and weighs 170 grams. It lives in mountains, taigas and woodlands mostly. It eats seeds, nuts and insects. The sexes do not differ from one another. In March the birds already start out to making their nest in trees. In it the female lays three or four eggs. These hatch quite quickly after some 18 days, but the young remain rather helpless for 24 more days.