From Teresa Lorenz, a couple of years ago, when I also spotted some Nutcrackers with purple faces ...
"Red anthocyanins (pigments) in unripe whitebark pine
cones stain the face and breast feathers of nutcrackers foraging on unripe
cones. "

Guy McWethy
Renton, WA
Lguy_mcw at yahoo

On Sep 24, 2016, at 11:07 AM, Gudalewicz Dasha <dasha at gudalewicz.com> wrote:

> Hello Tweets,
>
> Two weeks ago at Sunrise, Mount Rainier, I saw and photographed a nutcracker with throat stained pinkish/purplish. That reminded me that three years ago, in July, 2013, I saw two birds with similar stains, also at Sunrise.
>
> First six images here:
> https://ololaiki.smugmug.com/Animals/Birds/Corvids/Clarks-Nutcracker-2/
>
> That made me curious. But I couldn?t find anywhere what causes such staining.
>
> And the only other photos I found online were made in Banff NP:
> https://leerentz.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/banff-national-park-friendly-relations-between-clarks-nutcracker-and-whitebark-pine/
>
> I asked Dennis Paulson if he ever saw something like that and he did! At Sunrise in October 1974 he photographed what he called ?Purple-throated Fruitcrow? :)
>
> Dennis and I think that the most reasonable theory is that immature Whitebark Pine cones produce some kind of purplish stain.
>
> From Clark?s Nutcracker profile on BNA Online:
> ?Beginning mid- to late Jul, harvests unripe pine seeds ( Tomback 1978a , Hutchins and Lanner 1982 , Christensen et al. 1991 ). Removes seeds from closed whitebark, pi?on, limber, Jeffrey, and ponderosa pine cones??
>
> But at the same time:
> ?Whitebark pine seeds stored as early as 15 Aug in Rocky Mtns. and 25 Aug in Sierra Nevada.?
>
> Does anybody know when nutcrackers start collecting Whitebark seeds at Rainier? (as my first sighting was in July)
> Have any of you encountered (and probably photographed) stained nutcrackers?
> Or have you handled unripe Whitebark cones and can confirm that they stain?
> If you?re planning on hiking Rainier (or any other place where Whitebark Pines grow) would you be willing to collect a cone (if it is in the hand?s reach!) and check if it stains?
>
> Thank you!
> And happy birding,
>
> Dasha Gudalewicz,
> Sammamish, WA
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