Subject: [Tweeters] white stellar jay
Date: Sep 18 02:29:01 2005
From: Paul Webster - paul.webster at comcast.net


Hey Tweets,

Last week at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah I saw a Steller's Jay that showed white wing patches in flight. On the ground it looked like a standard Steller's Jay, mosly black above, black crest and head with white eyebrows, save that the breast shaded from black to bright ultramarine to white on the belly. Its calls sounded very much the Steller's Jay. The bird had me scratching my head until I read in the National Geo Field Guide that the Steller's Jay and the Blue Jay occasionally hybridize where their ranges overlap in the Rockies.

By the way, the spelling of Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) comes from the German naturalist Georg Steller, who accompanied the second Bering expedition to Alaska from 1740-1742. He realized that the crested jay he collected on Kayak Island (southeast of Prince William Sound) was very likely related to the Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) he had seen illustrated in Mark Catesby's 1731 natural history of the Carolinas.

Paul Webster
Seattle
paul.websterATcomcast.net

----- Original Message -----
From: Betty Boyd
To: TWEETERS
Sent: Friday, September 16, 2005 6:43 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] white stellar jay


Hi Tweets,

I talked to a friend of mine about an hour ago. Yesterday and Wed., they had a white stellar jay at their house, 1-2 miles west of Quilcene. It had some blue feathers on it. Was shy around the other jays that they feed.
Betty
Chimacum
boyd6016 at msn.com