Mike Smith wrote:

>Steller's and Gray Jays: Gray Jays inhabit high elevation conifer
>forests, Steller's Jays seem to be everywhere, though. My experience
>(and BBA data also) show Steller's Jays occurring from sea level (like
>here in Seattle) up to timberline. Confirmed nesting records are known
>from all over Mt. Rainier, and probable nesting records from every roaded
>mountain pass in the Cascades. Personally, I've seen them in fairly high
>spots such as Stevens Pass, Snoqualmie Pass, 49 Degrees North, and
>Whistler. Yet most printed accounts consider them to be a low-elevation
>species. What is it about them that allows them to succeed at high
>elevations where Gray Jays predominate?

I agree they are common right up to timberline, at least where trees are
dense enough to form a forest. I don't know how they avoid competition
with Gray Jays, or if they do so. Most corvids seem to be such generalists
that it's hard to imagine how they could specialize to utilize different
prey or different foraging techniques. The very different bills of Gray
and Steller's jays, however, would be interesting to contemplate in terms
of foraging techniques. Steller's (broader niche?) do well in the drier
conifer forests that lack Gray Jays, and Gray Jays (better cachers?) exist
way to the north of Steller's. Steller's is obviously more successful at
existing in habitats altered by humans, perhaps because they utilize
feeders. Why don't Gray Jays do that more? If you go very much south from
Washington, eventually Steller's Jay is the only mountain conifer jay, of
course.

>Clark's Nutcracker. Their high-elevation reliance on whitebark pine is
>very well documented. But how have they adapted so they can exist in
>ponderosa pine forests in eastern Washington?

Of course, here is that unusual corvid, the specialist. I'm not surprised
that they can also use ponderosa pine seeds, with their heavy corvid bill,
and there probably aren't any conifer cones with similarly large seeds
between the ranges of these two pines or they'd have nutcrackers cracking
them too. Nutcrackers use other pines too, for example pinyon.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416