Description:

Medium sized distinctive corvid with boldly spotted plumage. Appearing largely whitish at long range; medium-short tail slightly rounded at corners, relatively slim bill conical and pointed, with straight culmen. Compared with Spotted has larger white spots on body, and on wing coverts and tertials.

Distribution:

Common resident in the central Gilgit-Baltistan, mainly in Gilgit, Astore, Diamer and parts of Nagar. Found in coniferous forest and mixed conifer and oak forest where conifers predominate, especially forests of pine, fir and spruce; up to 3500m.

Behavior:

Forages among foliage of conifers, sweeping low from tree to tree; feeds also on ground at base of conifers. Hops, walks and bounds between bouts of probing or hammering into cones. Main food throughout much of year and in much of range is pine nuts, consumes also seeds of various other conifer species, as well as other nuts. During spring and early summer takes wide range of invertebrates.

Photo Gallery:

Range & Occurrence:

Resident Species

Summer Breeder

Winter Visitor

Passage Migrant

Distribution Map of Kashmir Nutcracker in Gilgit-Baltistan (Status: )

Seasonal Occurrence of Kashmir Nutcracker

Resources:

Birds of Pakistan: Helm Field Guides (R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
The Birds of Pakistan (T. J. Roberts)
Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (C. Inskipp, R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide (P. Rasmussen & J. Anderton)
Birds of India: Collins Field Guide (N. Arlott)
Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan (S. Ali & S. D. Ripley)
Handbook of the Birds of the World (https://www.hbw.com)
The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World, 6th Edition
iNaturalist BoGB (inaturalist.org/projects/birds-of-gilgit-baltistan)
Birds of Gilgit-Baltistan (http://fb.me/birdsgb)

*Gallery images on this page are shared from flickr.com, and are copyrighted to their respective creators or owners.