Western Scrub-Jay

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Western Scrub-Jay
Scrub-jays are aptly named nonmigratory birds whose habitat consists of areas with stunted trees: mesquite, scrub oak, pinyon pine, juniper, and thick, low brush. They can also be found near suburban yards or wooded city parks. In summer, scrub-jays eat a variety of animal foods, including small reptiles, mammals and amphibians, the eggs and young of other birds, and insects. Winter foraging flocks devour pine seeds, nuts, berries, and acorns. Pine seeds and acorns are often cached. Other feeding strategies include stealing the seed caches of Acorn Woodpeckers and Clark’s Nutcrackers and perching on cattle and deer, oxpecker-style, to search for ticks. When food crops fail in the foothills of the Southwest, Western Scrub-Jays move into the lowlands.

The range of the Western Scrub-Jay encompasses all of the large oak tracts of the West and extends from Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas north to southern Wyoming and Idaho and west to southern Washington and California. Western Scrub-Jays are most abundant in California's Sacramento Valley, where they can be found in mountain mahogany and California oaks, and in the oak scrub found in the Four Corners area of the Southwest. In the early 1900s, many Western Scrub-Jays were shot in the name of crop protection.
Western Scrub-Jay Range Map

Description: This large crestless jay with patternless wings and a long tail is approximately 11.5 inches in length. Birds found in California, Oregon, and western Nevada differ from inland birds. The bluish hood, wings, rump, and tail of this coastal form of the Western Scrub-Jay contrast strongly with a dull brown mantle and white throat. The forehead and short, diffuse supercilium are whitish. The side of the face is dark. The throat and upper breast are whitish, streaked with blurry gray, and bordered with a dark blue breast band. Underparts below the breast band are pale grayish buff, darker on the flanks and undertail coverts. The bill and legs are black.

The inland Western Scrub-Jays are similar in color, but their blue is paler and their coloring is more dull overall, with less contrast on the back and only a very slight breast band. The throat and upper breast are more heavily smudged with gray streaks, and the underparts are washed with dull bluish gray, which gives less contrast to the breast band.

The sexes are similar; juveniles are more dull in color, grayish above with blue on the wings and tail.

The Mexican or Gray-breasted Jay (Aphelocoma ultramarina) is a similar species that occurs in southern Arizona and the Big Bend area of Texas. It is more uniformly bluish gray above and grayish white below, lacking the contrasting mantle and throat and breast band of the Western Scrub-Jay.

The Western Scrub-Jay, the Island Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma insularis—found only on the island of Santa Cruz off the coast of Southern California), and the endemic Florida Scrub-Jay (A. coerulescens) formerly were given the status of races, but they are now seen as separate species.

Visit Shaw Creek Bird Supply to see our selection of Western Scrub-Jay Feeders.