A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Hobbies, Crafts and Creativity The Bird Lovers Forum confused about blue jays

The other day my brother said he saw a blue jay. I went to go look at the bird and saw what appeared to be a blue jay. I told him that blue jays live further east. Did he see a blue jay or a relative of the blue jay?

Enrique, I live in California also. I have two kinds of blue jays here that I know of. One has a smooth, rounded head of which we have the most. The other, a mountain jay looks pretty much identical but has a little crest of feathers on its head that comes to a point. I live at an elevation so I see some mountain jays but if you go further up into the mountains that is the only kind you see.

Enrique, what your brother saw was PROBABLY a Pinyon Jay. They look a LOT like our Eastern Blue Jay. The other possibility is a Steller's Jay. Google up Pin yon and Steller's Jay and show them to your brother to see if that's what he saw.

Here is a picture of a BLUE Jay I took in MY yard THIS year!

Willy Jay

He is gorgeous Thorny. You sent me off googling too and I think what I have the most of here is pinyon jays. With an occasional stellar jay (aka mountain jay) tossed in. Can these cousins breed for a mix?

Possibly. The only one of those two I have ever seen was the Pinyon Jay when I visited the Grand Canyon 30 years ago. I wasn't a birder then, but I vividly remember the Pinyon Jay.

I showed my brother a picture of a Stellar's jay and he said it looked exactly like the jay he saw.The other day I saw some Stellar's Jays hanging around my sunflowers.I think they are waiting for the flowers to appear so they can steal the seeds.