Erika was driving on 29 July 2020 on a dragonfly search. She applied the breaks and commented, “That was a strange bird—perhaps a shrike—we should back up and take a look!” It took our seeing an adult California Scrub-Jay flying away for us to realize our bird was a juvenile of the same species. Juvenile-plumaged birds look quite different from the adults. For one thing, a breast band is not evident. We did not notice the blue in the wing, which would have allowed us to identify the bird more quickly. This bird is in First Basic Plumage, which is present mostly from May through July. California Scrub-Jays inhabit the United States western coastal states south through all of Baja California.
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