Pinyon Jay
The dusty blue-gray and poised, the photogenic Pinyon Jay surprises with its boisterous and gregarious personality. This nomadic forager can be found in flocks of over 500, searching for pinyon seeds in the pinyon-juniper woodlands across New Mexico, northern Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado which lives mainly in the Great Basin region of the west.
Pinyon Jays store much of these seeds in caches for food in the winter, spring, and summer—thus playing a critical role in pinyon pine dispersal. Pinyon Jays are sociable at all seasons, traveling in flocks, nesting in colonies. When on the move they fly close together, giving harsh nasal calls. Their voices are a high-pitched caaa, often quavering at the end and resembling a laughing haa-a-a-a.
Pinyon Jay birds feeds heavily on seeds of pinyon pine; also eats seeds of other pines and many other plants, berries, small fruits, nuts, waste grain. Especially in summer, eats many insects, including beetles, caterpillars, and grasshoppers, also sometimes eggs and young of smaller birds. Young are fed mostly insects.
This photo of the Pinyon Jay bird, standing on the tips of a pine tree with brilliant colors, is taken by Brian Hubbs on the Bird Forum website. Pinyon Jay populations have
been in steep decline for over 50 years due to long term drought, climate change, and habitat conversion. Hotter, drier weather has led the pinyon pines to produce fewer of the nuts that these birds rely on. Historical fire suppression and conversion of pinyon-juniper landscape into grazing lands has significantly reduced the available habitat for the Jay. This has led the population to drop by over 80% since 1967.
Today, scientists are trying to determine how our habitat restoration and management in the southwestern United States should be adjusted to support and conserve Pinyon Jays. Recent research suggests that Pinyon Jays rely on transitional edge habitat between pinyon-juniper woodland and sagebrush shrubland for nesting and seed caching. As we continue to learn more about Pinyon Jay population distribution, pinyon-juniper removal projects can be designed to avoid and preserve stands that are important to these birds.
The range-wide conservation strategy for the Pinyon Jay is a joint product by the Partners in Flight Western Working Group and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (as part of the Working Group). They recommend several priority actions including the development of a standardized survey protocol across the species range, assessing response to vegetation management treatments, and addressing occupancy and pinyon nut availability and nest colony locations.
The Kaibab National Forest collaborates with partners to collect critical information to begin to address some of these recommendations. In collaboration with Great Basin Bird Observatory, Arizona Game and Fish Department and Audubon Southwest, we are refining a data collection protocol suitable for use in Pinyon Jay surveys by other partners and the Pinyon Jay Working Group, a large collaborative across the intermountain west. Breeding bird monitoring is one way to assess effectiveness of vegetation treatments along with any changed conditions on the ground. Data collected through this project is integral to begin assessing whether restoration actions on the Kaibab National Forest are having the intended effects and provides information to course-correct through the adaptive management process.
In addition to surveys on bird occupancy, we are also conducting pinyon nut surveys, a critical food resource for Pinyon Jay and important for some Native American Tribes. We are also working with our partners to harness the power of community science through a newly created science hub specifically focused on pinyon jays.
To learn more about these beautiful birds, including “How Climate Change Will Reshape the Range of the Pinyon Jay”, go to the Audubon website.
If you would like to participate in Pinyon Jay monitoring as a citizen scientist please enroll on the Audubon Southwest webpage or Great Basin Bird Observatory's Pinyon Jay Community Science, which maintains the community science data and contributes that information, along with the Audubon staff, to the Kaibab N.F. project. All is welcome to contribute to this worthy cause by going to their websites and signing up to participate.