Subject: Re: "California Jays"
Date: Sep 12 23:12:17 1997
From: "Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney" - festuca at olywa.net


Deb Beutler wrote:
"Could some one enlighten me? What is a California Jay? Is it a
scrub-jay or Blue Jay. If I remember correctly, the scrub-jay was split
into the Florida Scrub-Jay, the Western Scrub-Jay, and the Santa Catalina
Scrub-Jay. So what is a California Jay? If scrub-jays are invading Oregon,
are they invading from California, were they always there, or are they
invading from the Great Basin (i. e. eastern Oregon, Idaho, Nevada). I
noticed the large number of scrub-jays in the Portland area when I was there
but just assumed that they were always there. I was surprised by the
Stellar's Jay in downtown Portland because I have only seen them in the high
country of Idaho and Washington. But the Western Scrub-Jay does occur in
the town of Pocatello, southeastern Idaho (as well as Pinyon Jays)."

Deb,

"California Jay" is a local name for the Western Scrub Jay. Back in the bad old days (of the
Fourth Edition of the A.O.U. Check-list), the bird taxonomists gave Common Names to the
different *Subspecies* of birds. The California Jay group was considered completely separate
from Florida's Scrub Jays (which lives in Florida Scrub habitat), from Woodhouse's Jay of the
interior west, etc.

Jewett et al.'s 1953 "Birds of Washington State" list Aphelocoma coerulescens immanis as the
"Oregon Scrub Jay" with alternate names of "California Jay" and "Jay Bird". Gabrielson and
Jewett in their 1940 "Birds of Oregon", list this subspecies as the "Long-tailed Jay".

Their writings indicate that the species was much less abundant in SW Washington and even
less abundant in the Willamette Valley at the time - although quite common south from the Rogue
River valley. My father grew up just south of Salem, Oregon, and noted that when he was a kid
in the 1930s, the "California Jay" was pretty uncommon, and that Steller's Jays were the
common "Blue Jay". This, of course, has turned completely around on the Valley floor. What
the situation was in Oregon before the bird biologists started looking is anyone's guess, but
I imagine that the Scrub Jays might have been pretty few and far between in the northern
Willamette Valley until settlers started farming the prairies..

Two other 'scrub jay' subspecies are described by Gabrielson and Jewett - the Nicasio Jay, A.c.
oocleptica, of the southern Oregon coastal area (Pistol River & south) which is described as
'Same as Long-tailed Jay, but darker', and the Woodhouse's Jay, A.c. woodhousei, in extreme
SE Oregon which has a slate-gray back, rather than a brownish back.

Scrub Jays (ostensibly A.c. immanis?) are apparently undergoing a range expansion northward,
and are seen in a lot of places around the Puget Trough. Last Wednesday, I saw 2 Scrub Jays
near the Westside Olympia Food Coop -- on the north side of a 'canyon' near Garfield school,
and less than 1/2 mile from my home! Not a yard bird - Yet...

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net