Hi Mike and all

I remember that when I was living down in California that there was a fairly
clear dividing line in the Sierra foothills between Western Scrub-Jays and
Steller's Jays. As you move up into the foothills the oaks give way to more
coniferous forest, but there is a zone of overlap. Most folks seemed to feel
that in any confrontation between the two species, specifically in the
overlap zone, that the Scrub-Jays usually came out best, but I don't
remember any specific studies to verify that. I do know that in 20 years
down there I can't remember an instance of the Steller's getting the best of
fracas.

Brian H. Bell
Birding & Natural History Guide
Woodinville WA
mail to bell asoc at isomedia dot com

----- Original Message -----
From: <mgd at myuw.net>
To: "Rachel" <RachelWL at msn.com>
Cc: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 7:59 AM
Subject: [Tweeters] Scrub-jays


> Hi Rachel and Tweeters,
>
> I have a pair of Western Scrub-Jays and a pair Steller's Jays in my
> yard/neighborhood on Beacon Hill. I'm feeding them peanuts and get plenty
> of
> opportunity to watch their behavior. I've noticed that the scrub-jays
> chase
> away the Steller's--the latter usually come in when the scrubs have taken
> off
> with peanuts. I've seen Steller's Jays in oaks (Seward Park, Naches, Ft.
> Lewis) so they certainly know how to take advantage of an acorn crop. My
> guess is that throughout their range the scrubs are dominate to the
> Steller's and keep them in the conifers while the scrubs take the oaks.
>
> I've also seen lots of antagonistic encounters between the scrubs and the
> Anna's. The Anna's are always after the scrubs but don't seem to care
> about the Steller's. I'm wondering if that's because of the long shared
> evolutionary history between the two species (i.e. a long shared history
> of scrub-jay predation on Anna's nests). They're both open oak woodland
> species that have moved north into Washington from California.
>
> Mike Donahue
> Seattle
>
>
>
>
>
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