The other member of the genus, Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana), occurs in western North America.

[2] The scientific name is a reduplication; nucifraga is a Neo-Latin translation of German Nussbrecher, "nut-breaker" based on Latin nucis "nut", and frangere "to shatter",[3] and caryocatactes based on Greek: karuon "nut", and kataseio "to shatter".

[4] Other Germanic languages have etymologically related names: Danish: nøddekrige; Dutch: notenkraker; Norwegian: nøttekråke; Swedish: nötkråka.

Body plumage is mid-to-dark chocolate brown, heavily spotted with white on face, neck, mantle and underparts.

The black bill is slender to stout and rather long, sharply pointed, and varies in size amongst races.

[9] The voice is loud and harsh, somewhat similar to that of the Eurasian jay but slightly lower pitched and more on a single tone.

Nesting is always early in this species across its whole range, so as to make the best use of pine nuts stored the previous autumn.

Both sexes feed the young which are usually fledged by about 23 days and stay with their parents for many months, following them to learn the food storage techniques essential for survival in their harsh environment.

[12] Northern nutcrackers are not migratory, but will erupt out of range when a cone crop failure leaves them short of a food supply, the thin-billed eastern race N. c. macrorhynchos being the most likely subspecies to do this.