California Scrub-Jay

The second jay on our 20 January 2022 two-jay day was this California Scrub-Jay. This species is common along the Pacific Coast of North America. I have written before about how these jays are spreading north. They are now increasingly found in British Columbia, eastern Washington, Idaho and western Montana. Adults tend to be extremely territorial, forcing young birds to “float,” sometimes for several years as they search for mates and unoccupied territory. Populations can get disrupted and mixed during poor acorn years (Curry et al. 2020).