Last January after the snow fell, I had a very unusual flock of Scrub jays visit here for about three weeks. They had two, and possibly three, that were very strangely colored. They had the color of a Stellar's Jay, but had the color pattern and the lack of crest that a Scrub Jay has. They were also extremely large.

Just after the hot weather of last week, I noticed that my usual Scrubs were no longer here, but they had been replaced by a very unusual flock. The birds in this flock range from a grey-brown head, back, and stomach, Stellar's blue wings and tails, to a Stellar's blue head (no crest), black from the eyes to the bottom of the head, an extremely slim and small eyebrow, not the larger and prominent one of a Scrub Jay, and the shoulder patches are much further down on the backs than the Scrub normally has. One of these was also just a "dirty" grey, with some brown in the coloration. It was very small for a scrub, about 11", and had no color markings at all. I can't say for sure that it was even a jay, but it had all the body shapes of the jays.

If anyone is interested in these unusual birds, they seem to be very happy here for the time being, at least. I have pictures of some of them, but I did not get the one of the smaller grey-brown one that was with them. There are at least seven of them, and I think eight. Three definitely of the grey-brown ones with the Stellar's blue on the tails and wings, and four of the Stellar's blue heads and bodies, with the shoulder patches of the Scrub. These birds go from about 12" to 14-14 1/2 " in length. Anyone who would like to see them or their pictures would be welcome to verify these unusual colorations. At my best guess, and only a guess, they seem to be a cross between a Stellar's Jay, a Scrub Jay, and possibly a Grey Jay. They show up about 6:30 AM (late for jays here) and again about 4:30 or 5:00 PM, and leave early, at about 6:30 PM. They fly in from the east and leave back into that direction, toward Mt. Rainier.

J.V. Bonham
Centralia, WA
jvbonham at msn.com