Western Scrub Jay
Ryan Peterson (2007)

Western Scrub Jays can be found all along the west coast from Southern California to Southern Washington and inland as far as Idaho and Wyoming. These birds are approximately 11-12 inches long and have a bluish hood, wings, tail, and rump with a white throat and belly. The farther inland the birds are located the duller the color pattern will be. These Jays will most often be found in pairs in relation to a specific territory that belongs to them.

The easiest way to locate a Scrub Jay is to listen and look toward the tops of the trees. The Jays call is a loud one to two second screech that can be heard from a considerable distance. The birds will often keep one of the two of the pair in the top of a tall tree to act as a sentinel while the other forages for food. This is called sentinel behavior and allows the Jays to both monitor their territory for intruders, but to notify each other of predators in the area. This behavior will be most prevalent during the breeding season in March and April. We have discovered approximately 6-8 breeding pairs here on Willamette’s campus. Some of these birds have been banded around the leg for the purpose of identification and tracking. The Jays on campus are fairly used to human contact and often respond to throwing a handful of peanuts out for them.

In the month of March the birds begin building their nests. The nests are usually located five to ten feet off the ground in a thick bush such as a Rhododendron. The easiest ways to locate a nest is to follow a bird carrying sticks for building or to see it emerge from a bush carrying a fecal pellet. Fecal pellets are the feces of the hatched chicks. The parents take the pellets away from the nest to avoid attracting predators by the smell.

These birds mostly feed on seeds, nuts, acorns, and berries during the winter. They are more active in the summer months, looking for, small animals, and eggs of other birds or insects. The Jays are very intelligent and often store the nuts and seeds to eat at a later time. This behavior is called “caching.” The birds have been found to cache amounts of food based on whether or not they’ll be able to find food in the future.

Keep your eyes and ears open and maybe next time you’re outside you’ll notice the presence of a Western Scrub jay in your area.