California Scrub-Jay

Our journey to Olympia, Washington, in early December, was not a birding trip. California Scrub-Jays, however, greeted us at our son’s bird feeder. Olympia is at the northern end of this species’s range, which continues coastally through Baja California. The species used to be known as the Western Scrub-Jay. The coastal populations differ genetically, habitat, and color from birds in the American Southwest and in Mexico. These latter birds are now known as Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jays. The two populations do interbreed where their ranges overlap. Evidence exists that the hybrids have poorer survivorship than pure-bred birds (Curry et al. 2007).