Crows and Jays: Corvidae

Physical characteristics: Western scrub-jays look somewhat like blue jays. Both species have dark blue heads, wings, and tails. The scrub-jays do not have feathered crests on their heads. Scrub-jays have white chests, and white coloring on the face that resembles an eyebrow. The throat is white with a blue necklace. There is a blue band on the chest, and the lower body coloring is white, tan, and gray.

The length of western scrub-jays ranges from 10.53 to 12.09 inches (27 to 31 centimeters). They weigh about 3 ounces (85 grams).

Geographic range: Western scrub-jays live in the western United States and northwestern Mexico.

Habitat: Western scrub-jays live in desert areas.

Diet: Western scrub-jays are omnivores. They eat acorns, pine seeds, invertebrates, animals without backbones, like insects, reptiles, eggs and nestlings, mammals, and amphibians, animals able to live on land and in the water.

Behavior and reproduction: Western scrub-jays are solitary breeders. The male and female are not helped by other birds. The female lays two to six eggs from March through May. Females incubate the eggs, which hatch after sixteen to nineteen days. Birds fledge, grow feathers, in approximately eighteen days.

Western scrub-jays and people: Seeds hidden by western scrub-jays grow into trees.

Conservation status: Western scrub-jays are not in danger of extinction. ∎