1. What's in a name?
2. What does it look like?
3. What does it sound like?
4. How does it behave?
5. Where does it live?
6. Cool Facts
   

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Common name: Steller's Jay

Scientific name: Cyanocitta stelleri

Spanish names: Chara Crestada

French names: Geai de Steller

"Family Tree" (Taxonomy)

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Corvidae

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?

Description:

• Large, dark blue songbird
  
• Black, sturdy bill
  
• Black crest and head
  
• Dark streaks on wings and tail
  
• Dark legs
  
• White specks may appear on neck
• Sexes are similar
• Juveniles similar except they have gray tops
  

Size: Large songbird (12-13 inches)

Similar species: The Blue Jay is crested, but has a grayish white chest with a black band across it, a white face, and substantial white in the wings and tail. No other jay has a crest.

Clark's Nutcracker occurs at higher elevations than Steller's Jay and the Scrub Jay occurs at lower elevations. Often, though, there is much overlap.

WHAT DOES IT SOUNDS LIKE?

To play this sound, you will need to have RealPlayer installed. To get RealPlayer, click here. Sounds are provided by the Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds.

HOW DOES IT BEHAVE?

What does it eat? Steller's Jays are omnivorous, meaning their diet is a combination of vegetation and animal life. They eat seeds, berries, nuts (such as acorns and pine seeds), insects and small invertebrates.

Where does it eat? Steller's Jays eat in the air, on the ground, and in trees and shrubs.

Who eats it? Accipiter hawks prey heavily on Steller's Jays. Also, Cooper's Hawks and Northern Goshawks. Eggs may be eaten by red squirrels. They are killed by domestic cats, and Gopher snakes have been observed eating their young.

Nesting: Steller's Jays usually lay between 1 and 6 eggs (bluish-green marked with dark spots), and incubate for 16 days on a nest of sticks, leaves, and moss in a conifer or deciduous tree after its leaves open. Unlike other jays, Steller's and Blue jays use mud for their nests. Nests are typically placed on horizontal branches close to the trunk, often close to the top of the ress. When nesting near human habitation, Steller's Jays frequently place their nests close to a winder, building, or path (occasionally in a building or barn). Most nests are placed 3 to 5 meters above ground in bushes or trees, but occasionally in bushes almost on the ground.

WHERE DOES IT LIVE?

Range: Steller's Jays are resident from southern Alaska southward through the mountains to Nicaragua, eastward to Colorado and western Texas. Low-elevation populations typically remain on breeding territories during winter in North America. High-elevation populations typically move to lower elevations during the winder, and into habitats not occupied during breeding season, such as oak forests, orchards, and gardens. There are occasional irruptions of mostly young birds to areas outside the normal range.

Habitat: Steller's Jays occupy a wide variety of sites, including undisturbed old growth coniferous forest, managed or harvested forests, mixed coniferous-deciduous forests, parks and recreational areas, backyards, and orchards and gardens in suburban and urban areas. They are usually found at high altitudes except along the Pacific coast of the United States and Canada.

COOL FACTS

• Steller's Jays are good mimics. They're often heard imitating the calls of raptors and other animals in the area, including those of fox squirrels, the Northern Flicker, the Northern Goshawk, the White-breasted Nuthatch, chickens and rooster, dogs, cats, and even mechanical sounds such as water sprinklers, telephones, and squeaky doors!
• The Steller's Jay and the Blue Jay are the only New World jays that use mud in the construction of their nests.
• Steller's Jays are normally nonmigratory, although populations that breed at high elevations typically move to lover elevations during the winter. Periodic irruptions of large flocks (mainly young birds) bring this jay into areas and habitats not normally occupied.
• The Steller's Jay shows a great deal of variation in appearance throughout its range, with some populations featuring black crests and backs, and others blue. They tend to have large black crests in the U.S. and Canada compared to bluish, small crests in Central America. Coastal North American birds tend to be lighter than interior (inland) birds, which despite their blcker heads have white markings on the face and crest. One black-crested form in southern Mexico is surrounded by eight other blue-crested forms.
• While on the ground, the Steller's Jay typically obtains food by flicking aside leaf litter with sideways swipes of its bill. Typically it carries nuts or large food items to elevated perches, then holds food items under one or both feet and strikes them with a slightly open bill. It will take acrons from the storage trees of the Acorn Woodpecker. The Steller's Jay also commonly takes eggs and the nestlings of small birds. It has been observed attacking adult Pygmy Nuthatch and adult Dark-eyed Junco. Both birds were caught in the air with feet and carried to perch, where the Steller's Jay held them with one foot and lucked and partly ate them.
• Songs are produced mainly by males, but also occasionally by females. They consist of a low-amplitude series of whistled, gurgled, snapping, popping, or harsh sounds run together with frequent repetitions. Solitary individuals perched in dense vegetation will sing with no apparent stimulus; individuals occasionally sing during other activities, such as foraging. Adults have been observed apparently singing to juveniles. A singing Steller's Jay often continues for several minutes with slight pauses, holding its tail and body in line and nearly vertical. It extends its head forward slightly and slowly turns it from side to side.
• During vigorous fights, two birds fly upwards, grasping each other with feet and pecking at each other with their bills. The dominant bird usually supplants subordinates at feeding sites and occasionally chase them; the supplanted bird jumps a few feet or flies away.
• Steller's and Blue jays frequently show aggression when sharing bird feeders; Steller's Jays typically are dominant over Blue Jays, and frequently remove stored food from caches of Clark's Nutcrackers, Gray Jays, and Acron Woodpeckers.
• Steller's Jays fly strong and deliberate, but cannot sustain flight for long distances. British flocks frequently fly parallel to the coastline--the birds apparently are reluctant to cross large expanses of water.
• The Steller's Jay sleeps with its head turned backward and bill tucked into its back-feathers.
• The oldest recorded wild Steller's Jay was 16 years old, from Juneau, Alaska.
• The Steller's Jay has the most extensive range of any North American jay, from Alaska along the coast to central California, and through the Rocky Mountains and high mountain areas of Central America to Nicaragua.
  

Help scientists learn more about groups of jays and their relatives with Crows Count and Birdsleuth: Exploring Bird Behavior!

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