Guy,

That is great!
Thanks a lot!

Dasha Gudalewicz
Sammamish, WA


> On Sep 24, 2016, at 5:24 PM, Guy <lguy_Mcw at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> 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 <mailto: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/>https://ololaiki.smugmug.com/Animals/Birds/Corvids/Clarks-Nutcracker-2/ <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/>https://leerentz.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/banff-national-park-friendly-relations-between-clarks-nutcracker-and-whitebark-pine/ <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 <https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/clanut/references#REF7261> , Hutchins and Lanner 1982 <https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/clanut/references#REF7244> , Christensen et al. 1991 <https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/clanut/references#REF41626> ). 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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