Two jay species entertain San Diego County bird-watchers

Common Steller’s and scrub varieties are entertaining sights

The Steller’s jay is a common sight in the county’s pine forests.
The Steller’s jay is a common sight in the county’s pine forests. Ernie Cowan

Steller’s jays are not shy about announcing their arrival at campgrounds in San Diego County’s mountain backyard and throughout the pine forests of the West.

With a flash of bright blue, they swoop down from tall pines to clean up tidbits of food at campgrounds or to forage for insects, seeds, berries or small critters on the forest floor.

Occupying the same mountain habitat but spreading west into the chaparral and coastal sagebrush is the western scrub-jay, with similar behavior, but lacking the distinctive topknot of the Steller’s jay. Both of these are common residents of San Diego and are easily spotted birds that will excite youngsters who are just getting started in bird watching.

Campers in Cuyamaca, Palomar Mountain or at Laguna Mountain will frequently encounter these bold and aggressive birds as they defend a morsel of food from ground squirrels, woodpeckers or other jays.

Many people refer to the Steller’s jay as a blue jay. While the birds are closely related, the blue jay is found east of the Rockies, while the Steller’s jay is native to western North America.

The name of the Steller’s jay is frequently misspelled. The brilliant azure and blue make it a stellar creature to see, but it is actually named after Georg Steller, a scientist who first identified the species in 1741 on an Alaskan island.

Seen on the ground, the Steller’s jay moves around with powerful hops. When in flight, the bird glides smoothly with a wingspan of about 17 inches.

On a recent picnic at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, I watched a Steller’s jay ignore my presence and land on the other end of the picnic table to pick up a small piece of food. He then flew to the ground nearby and proceeded to hide his prize under a mat of pine needles. I had to laugh when a moment later a noisy acorn woodpecker flew down and swiped the newly hidden food.

These are birds that mate for life, and both the male and female Steller’s jays participate in building a nest on horizontal branches near the top of pine trees. Nests are a cup made of branches, leaves and sticks glued together with mud and then lined with animal hair, soft plants and pine needles.

Birds only nest once a year, producing up to six eggs that are incubated for 16 days. The oldest recorded age for a Steller’s jay was 16 years.

The Steller’s jay is easy to find because they are so vocal and often gather in playful groups. They’ve been known to sound a distress call to frighten away other birds and then swoop in to claim a bit of food.

The scrub-jay, common to chaparral and sagebrush, is also a frequent backyard visitor to San Diego residents living near canyons. Ernie Cowan

The western scrub-jay is similar in size to the Steller’s jay, but it lacks the topknot. It can be easily identified by its azure blue head, wings and tail and light gray or white chest and under parts. The male and female birds look alike.

While scrub-jays do share the pine forests with Steller’s jays, they are most at home in the pinyon pines, chaparral, oak woodlands and coastal sagebrush fields extending to the coast. They have also adapted well to urban living.

Also very vocal, this bird often visits backyard bird feeders, especially if you offer raw peanuts or black oil sunflower seeds.

It’s quite comical to watch a scrub-jay trying to pick up two whole peanuts at the same time. They will continue to try until flying off in frustration with only one peanut in their beaks. They will stash peanuts in secret places and return moments later to steal more.

This practice of stashing their food in secret places also contributes to reseeding native vegetation. The scrub-jay stores food for later use but almost always hides away more food than it needs. Those excess seeds of native plants will hopefully germinate.

While they are nervous birds, a patient backyard birder can eventually get a scrub-jay to eat from your hands. In their native environment, they feed on acorns, insects, small lizards and fruit.

The scrub-jay also enjoys bathing in backyard fountains and will put on quite a show splashing in a shallow pool of water.

Unlike Steller’s jays, the scrub-jay tolerates feeding with other birds and can often be found sharing feeders with smaller sparrows and finches.

These Steller’s and scrub-jays are also very good mimics, often duplicating the sounds of hawks, chickens and other birds.

The collective name for a group of jays is a “scold” of jays.

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