WrightwoodCalif.com Forum
Public Forums => San Gabriel Mtns Flora - Fauna => Topic started by: zelicaon on Oct 09, 03, 09:25:36 AM
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Pinyon Jays Have been reported on Blue Ridge Road recently. This is a highly unusual occurrence since they mainly live in the eastern Sierras and throughout the Great Basin.
Found near pinyon pine in noisy, nomadic flocks, they are short-tailed and plain blue-gray colored.
Just think, THREE kinds of jays in Wrightwood at one time! Hope that you can find these!
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I'll be looking. Thanks for the tip!
Pinyon Jays Have been reported on Blue Ridge Road recently. This is a highly unusual occurrence since they mainly live in the eastern Sierras and throughout the Great Basin.
Found near pinyon pine in noisy, nomadic flocks, they are short-tailed and plain blue-gray colored.
Just think, THREE kinds of jays in Wrightwood at one time! Hope that you can find these!
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(http://a1410.g.akamai.net/f/1410/1633/7d/209.133.64.45/birds/birds_m/BD0028_1m.jpg)
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Wot a little beauty.... Looks very much like a shrike.
Is this the same as a Butcher Bird?
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Looks very much like a shrike. Is this the same as a Butcher Bird?
It certainly does in that pose!
But, no, the Pinyon Jay is not a shrike which is also known as the butcher bird. "The loggerhead shrike is a masked, hook-billed songbird known for its habit of impaling prey on thorns or barbed wire."
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/er/factsheets/birds/SHRIKE.HTM
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Zelicaon, can you contrast these guys' appearnace with the scrub jay a little more?
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Zelicaon, can you contrast these guys' appearnace with the scrub jay a little more?
Sure can. But let me compare and contrast three birds you are likely to find now.
First they are all Corvids, that is, members of the crow family like ravens. They are all noisy and found in small groups. They all have long pointed bills.
The three birds of similar size and habitat are:
Scrub Jay, 11-13" head to tail, chaparral, residential areas and pinyon-juniper and scrub-oak woodlands
Pinyon Jay, 9-11 1/2", pinyon-juniper woodland and yellow pine forest
Clark's Nutcracker, 12-13', near timberline [I've seen them at Table Mtn.]
Scrub Jay is slim with contrasting bright blue and gray plumage. The blue is on the back and the gray on the underparts. The throat is white. The tail is long.
Clark's Nutcracker is stout with a gray head and body and black wings. In flight this bird shows white patches on trailing edge of the wings and the outer tail feathers.
Pinyon Jay is stout, overall dull blue-gray with a short tail.
To summarize, the pinyon jay shows no contrasting colors on its body when perched or in flight and is stout with a short square tail.
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Thanks! :)
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Z:
It is so kewl having someone on this Forum that knows all about this kind of stuff and tells us about it! THANKS! ;D
P.S. Hi Magpie.... Our other local expert Naturalist.....
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Z: It is so kewl having someone on this Forum that knows all about this kind of stuff and tells us about it!
My pleasure.
There have been no further reports of the Pinyon Jay locally. That doesn't mean they are gone, just that they haven't been seen because they are nomadic. I would look in rocky areas with pinyon pines.