Pinyon Jays at Sisters, OR

Pinyon Jays Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus These jays in general have longer dagger-like bills, shorter tails, no crest, and are a bit smaller than most of our other jay species. They look sort of like a small blue crow. Note also the uniform blue color, and the gray-white chin area.

Pinyon Jays are a member of the corvid family that is usually described as gregarious, loud, and nomadic. They are typically found in Pinyon-Juniper forests, but are also found in Pine forests like where we found them in Sisters, Oregon last week on our trip to see Cassia Crossbill and Himalayan Snowcock. Prior to this trip I had seen a total of one individual Pinyon Jay, at Lake Hemet, Califorinia in April of 1996, 22 years ago. My birding buddy Ken and I joke that although we were looking for a loud flock of birds, we found a single silent Pinyon Jay after at least 2 hours of searching on the prior trip.

When we got to Sister, OR on our way home from the Ruby Mountains of Nevada, we first went to the feeding station behind the Best Western where PIJA are often seen. We got great looks at lots of birds there, but only a very fleeting look at a single Pinyon Jay that dropped into the feeding area just long enough to identify, but not to photograph.

Terri was familiar with the Sisters area from her time volunteering at the Mal Huer NWR, and suggested we go to the Trinity Way neighborhood, an area where there are several churches, and open stands of Ponderosa Pine. After a short time there we heard a flock of the jays, and located them in a vacant lot adjacent to a housing tract with several feeders.

This juvenile Pinyon Jay was sitting with a Brown-headed Cowbird chick, and we suspect they shared a nest. Brown-headed Cowbirds are nest parasites, meaning the cowbirds lay their eggs in other species nests and the young are incubated and raised by the adults of the nesting species. Often the young cowbird either kills or outcompetes the other chicks and is the lone survivor, but my guess is that the larger baby jay held its own.

So now I have the expected experience of seeing a loud, gregarious flock of Pinyon Jays, and feel like I've really experienced them as they are usually described.

Good birding. Steem on. Visit and follow @birdersofsteem where birders can find and support each other on the Steemit platform.