#Pinyon Jay

[corvidsofthedeep]

from the deep #24023: blue jay illustrations by Arthur Singer for A Guide to Field Identification: Birds of North America by Chandler S. Robbins, Bertel Bruun, and Herbert S. Zim.

[haveyouseenthisbirdpoll]

Photo source

Map source

[desert-oracle]

THE BLUE CROW

Destruction of High Desert forest on public land has led to a 78% drop in pinyon jay populations over the past 50 years. The pinyon jay is the steward of the pinyon forests, for which the forest feeds and houses this crucial blue crow. Of the thousands of pinyon nuts the blue crow puts away for the winter, usually working with its mate and both returning to the spot throughout the year to store…

[proton-wobbler]

Round 1, Poll 14

Smooth-billed Ani vs Pinyon Jay

source under cut

Smooth-billed Ani Propaganda

"Theyre my favourite bird and they look dumb. Relatively unassuming general bird characteristics like food and habitat. Fun fact they have communal nests"

So Ani all have this habit of communal nesting, and it's bomb af. One pair will choose a site, and if it looks nice, multiple other pairs will also start nest building. Eventually, though, they pick one nest, and the entire little colony will lay eggs in this shared nest. The parents raise all the chicks without prejudice, it's really cool!

Smooth-billed Ani are often described as clumsy as they look for food, hopping around on the ground and in bushes as if they don't have any sense of balance. There is a thought that this behavior could help to scare insects into flight, but they also could just be having a good time.

Pinyon Jay Propaganda

Pinyon Jay get their name from their diet- seeds from pinyon pine, which they'll pull from the still green cones and then stash for later in various places. This behavior results in sprouting pinyon wherever the stashes have been forgotten. Because this species is so dependent on these pines, they'll almost always nest in areas where the pinyon crop was good the year before so they've got plenty of seeds to raise their kids on.

Pinyon Jay are seriously monogamous. One study I read for work found that when a nest fails (often a reason for bird divorce), pinyon jay will stay together as a pair and try again- even if they fail multiple times! One example of extreme monogamy was an instance where a female pinyon jay was removed from the flock (for an undisclosed reason), and her male found another mate within the breeding season. When she was returned to the flock, she immediately sabotaged the new nesting attempt and her mate still returned to her side! Serious Monogamy

Pinyon Jay live in huge flocks, which can range between 40-500 members! Most jay only tolerate having their kids around the next season, while pinyon jay are likely to live within their flock their whole life.

They sound like you told someone to mix a jay and a squeaky toy, I mean come on that's so perfect.

[eternal-trip]

Pinyon Jays photographed by Mike Miller

[animal-families-tournaments]

[nohriantomatoes]

Thanks for the quick response! I had a feeling, since there were so many birds and these guys are not very well known.

Good luck with the set-up!

Ok I have to kno (bc I think I already know the answer is 'no') but did Pinyon Jay make it in?

Also like no pressure to answer, I just realized while typing this I can just be patient and wait but Im intensely curious now

Yeah I’m sorry the answer is no :^( it’s sad because there were so many good birds that I was like “woah I love this guy!” But then only one person submitted them. For everyone’s reference, here’s the Pinyon Jay

[basilpaste]

im glad people are liking heretic now that he gets a spotlight in a route (he was fun in muse but like! advocate was really the star lmao). hes such a weirdboy i love him.

[smallerdelusions]

Wreath of Jays

Eight of the ten current genera of jays are represented here. Three genera have only one member: the Pinyon Jay (Gymnorhinus) and the Piapiac (Ptilostomus) are the two I left out. I really wanted to show all the beautiful colors of the old- and new-world jay subfamilies.

From the bottom, going counter clockwise:

Genus Cyanocorax; Green Jay (C. luxuosus)

Genus Cyanocitta; Blue Jay (C. cristata)

Genus Garrulus; Eurasian Jay (G. glandarius)

Genus Perisoreus; Canada Jay (P. canadensis)

Genus Aphelocoma; California Scrub Jay (A. californica)

Genus Podoces; Mongolian Ground Jay (P. hendersoni)

Genus Zavattariornis; Ethiopian Bushcrow (Z. stresemanni)

Genus Cyanolyca; Azure-Hooded Jay (C. cucullata)

Thanks for reading! (and happy holidays!)

[audible-smiles]

Blue Birds of Happiness

Blue is an extra-fun color for birds to be, because, as you may have heard, it is not created by a pigment. Blue feathers (and the blue scales on butterfly wings, and the blue irises of some humans) are structural, meaning that the color is created by the physical properties of the living tissue, which are arranged in such a way that they reflect the short wavelengths of blue light. Often this is paired with a dark pigment which absorbs other colors of light and makes the blue 'pop'. Look at all the tints and shades they can make!

Mountain bluebird

2. Himalayan bluetail

3. Blue nuthatch

4. Blue jay

5. Indigo bunting

6. Great blue turaco

7. Tree swallow

8. Ultramarine flycatcher

9. Hyacinth macaw

10. Glaucous-blue grosbeak

11. Belted kingfisher

12. Blue dacnis

13. Taiwan blue-magpie

14. Shining honeycreeper

15. Siberian blue robin

16. Blue whistling-thrush

17. African blue flycatcher

18. White-throated magpie jay

19. Black-naped monarch

20. Blue paradise flycatcher

21. Cerulean warbler

22. Woodland kingfisher

23. Indian peafowl

24. Little blue heron

25. Philippine fairy-bluebird

26. Pinyon jay

27. Blackish-blue seedeater

28. Plum-throated cotinga

29. Deep-blue flowerpiercer

30. Blue coua

[organicmatter]

Pinyon Jay Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus by Glenn Kincaid

[na-bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay

Photo: Ryan Mandelbaum

"Until recently, this jay of the Interior West was considered part of the same species as the California Scrub-Jay; the two were officially 'split' in July 2016. Unlike its California cousin, Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay is mostly an uncommon bird, living in sparse woodlands of juniper and pinyon pine in arid foothills, but it does come into suburbs of some western cities. Its name honors Samuel W. Woodhouse, a doctor and naturalist who accompanied expeditions to the Southwest between 1849 and 1852 and wrote about his experiences."

- Audubon Field Guide

[nanistar]

local woman wont stop having kids, more news at 11 ft animals: Mojave black-collared liard (Crotaphytus bicinctores), pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus), black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus deserticola)

TAPAS | CHRONO COMMISSIONS | PATREON

[haveyouseenthisbirdpoll]

List of Birds organized by Order + locations:

Accipitriformes:

Bearded vulture

California condor

Cooper's hawk

Osprey

Red-shouldered hawk

Steller's sea eagle

Anseriformes:

Bar-headed goose

Barnacle goose

Black swan

Common merganser

Red-breasted goose

Snow goose

Trumpeter swan

Apodiformes:

Common swift

Ruby-throated hummingbird

Bucerotiformes:

Eurasian hoopoe

Cariamiformes:

Red-legged seriema

Casuariiformes:

Emu

Southern cassowary

Cathartiformes:

Black vulture

Turkey vulture

Charadriiformes:

American oystercatcher

Atlantic puffin

Black-headed gull

Black skimmer

Black-tailed godwit

European herring gull

Killdeer

Northern lapwing

Ruddy turnstone

Western sandpiper

Ciconiiformes:

White stork

Columbiformes:

Common wood pigeon

Eurasian collared dove

Luzon bleeding-heart

Nicobar pigeon

Victoria crowned pigeon

Coraciiformes:

Blue-capped kingfisher

Common kingfisher

Cuculiformes:

Asian koel

Greater roadrunner

Yellow-billed cuckoo

Eurypygiformes:

Kagu

Falconiformes:

American kestrel

Common kestrel

Galliformes:

Palawan peacock-pheasant

Plain chachalaca

Scaled quail

Western capercaillie

Gaviiformes:

Common loon

Gruiformes:

American coot

Australasian swamphen/pūkeko

Blue crane

Common moorhen

Sandhill crane

Sora

Whooping crane

Passeriformes:

American bushtit

American robin

Australian raven

Baltimore oriole

Barn swallow

Black-billed magpie

Black-capped chickadee

Black-headed grosbeak

Black-throated sparrow

Blue-headed vireo

Blue jay

Bluethroat

Brown thrasher

California scrub jay

California towhee

Canada warbler

Canyon wren

Cave swallow

Cedar waxwing

Common blackbird

Common chlorospingus

Common raven

Eastern wood pewee

Eurasian blue tit

Eurasian bullfinch

Eurasian golden oriole

Eurasian jay

Eurasian magpie

European robin

Goldcrest

Great-tailed grackle

Great tit

Hooded crow

House sparrow

Indigo bunting

Kirtland's warbler

LeConte's sparrow

Long-tailed tit

Mexican jay

Painted bunting

Phainopepla

Pine siskin

Pin-tailed whydah

Pinyon jay

Pygmy nuthatch

Red winged blackbird

Rook

Saltmarsh sparrow

Satin bowerbird

Spotted towhee

Steller's jay

Tufted titmouse

Wallcreeper

Warbling vireo

Western tanager

White-breasted nuthatch

White-throated dipper

White-throated magpie-jay

Yellow-rumped warbler

Pelecaniformes:

Black-crowned night heron

Brown pelican

Great blue heron

Great egret

Great white pelican

Least bittern

Roseate spoonbill

Shoebill stork

Snowy egret

Phoenicopteriformes:

American flamingo

Chilean flamingo

Piciformes:

Acorn woodpecker

Clark's nutcracker

Great spotted woodpecker

Lewis's woodpecker

Northern flicker

Pileated woodpecker

Red-bellied woodpecker

Red-headed woodpecker

Podargiformes:

Tawny frogmouth

Podicipediformes:

Pied-billed grebe

Procellariiformes:

Wilson's storm-petrel

Psittaciformes:

Australian king parrot

Chestnut-fronted macaw

Citron-crested cockatoo

Cockatiel

Galah

Gang-gang cockatoo

Pacific parrotlet

Red-masked parakeet

Rose-ringed parakeet

Sulphur-crested cockatoo

Strigiformes:

Barn owl

Barred owl

Eurasian eagle-owl

Suliformes:

Anhinga

Blue-footed booby

Double-crested cormorant

Trogoniformes:

Elegant trogon

Locations:

Africa

America

Antarctica

Asia

Australia

Eurasia

Europe

Oceania

[proton-wobbler]

Round 2, Poll 7

Blakiston's Fish Owl vs Pinyon Jay

sources under cut

Blakiston's Fish Owl

"He’s fluffy and he FISHES by WADING but he’s an OWL"

Classified as Endangered by IUCN, this is due to a double-whammy of habitat loss and low breeding success. The habitat this species prefers are riperian (riverside), old-growth forests. They need access to rivers which remain unfrozen in winter, and nest in large, hollowed out trees. These owls naturally have a low survivorship rate, only succeeding around 25% of the time in fledging a full grown chick. They also do not nest every year, and sometimes only have a single egg per attempt.

Blakiston's fish owl is revered by the Ainu peoples of Hokkaido, Japan, as a Kamuy (divine being) called Kotan koru Kamuy (God that Protects the Village). In Russia, they used to be considered a source of food by the Evens people of northern Siberia, and were hunted by the Udege peoples of Primorye due to their high fat content. This practice has fallen out of favor, however.

Pinyon Jay

Pinyon Jay get their name from their diet- seeds from pinyon pine, which they'll pull from the still green cones and then stash for later in various places. This behavior results in sprouting pinyon wherever the stashes have been forgotten. Because this species is so dependent on these pines, they'll almost always nest in areas where the pinyon crop was good the year before so they've got plenty of seeds to raise their kids on.

Pinyon Jay are seriously monogamous. One study I read for work found that when a nest fails (often a reason for bird divorce), pinyon jay will stay together as a pair and try again- even if they fail multiple times! One example of extreme monogamy was an instance where a female pinyon jay was removed from the flock (for an undisclosed reason), and her male found another mate within the breeding season. When she was returned to the flock, she immediately sabotaged the new nesting attempt and her mate still returned to her side! Serious Monogamy

Pinyon Jay live in huge flocks, which can range between 40-500 members! Most jay only tolerate having their kids around the next season, while pinyon jay are likely to live within their flock their whole life.

They sound like you told someone to mix a jay and a squeaky toy, I mean come on that's so perfect.

Images: Owl (Ian Davies)

[gorbling]

those videos where they put a gopro on an outside cat's collar but instead of cutesy interactions w other cats its like a compilation of each time it kills a threatened bird species and theres like gruesome vfx and blood going everywhere and like a game HUD that says like Pinyon Jay slain. 10,355 remain.