Quantcast

Island Scrub-Jay

Aphelocoma insularisOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Crows and Jays (Corvidae)

Island Scrub-Jay Breeding Male Portrait
  Copyright 2002-2007 Whatbird.com
Click here for licensing information Splitbar

General

Island Scrub-Jay: Medium-sized, crestless jay with gray-brown back and blue wings. Upper breast, throat, and chin are white with streaks. Head is blue with gray mask and narrow white eyebrow. Tail and undertail coverts are blue. Sexes are similar. Juvenile is grayer overall with breast streaks and dark gray tail.

Range and Habitat

Island Scrub-Jay: Restricted to Santa Cruz Island, about 20 miles off the coast of California.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"quay-quay-quay", "quay-fee"

Interesting Facts

 The Island Scrub-Jay has been split from the Western Scrub-Jay because of its brighter plumage and different genetic makeup.

 Until breeding space becomes available, unmated individuals use marginal habitats not suitable for breeding. Nonbreeders do not defend territories, but rather forage and roost in loose groupings or on their own.

 It is not known to have occurred anywhere else historically, and no fossil remains have been found on the well-researched neighboring islands.

 A group of jays has many collective nouns, including a "band", "cast", "party", and "scold" of jays.



Author

Gary Owen Dick

Splitbar
Range Map for Island Scrub-Jay
.
Bird database and its related content, illustrations and media is Copyright © 2002 - 2007  Whatbird.com
All rights reserved. No part of this web site may be reproduced without written permission from Mitch Waite Group.
 Privacy Policy.
Percevia® Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family Jays and Magpies (Corvidae)_blue
Species Aphelocoma insularis
Length11 - 13 Inches
Wingspan16 Inches

Island Scrub-Jay

Island Scrub-Jay: Medium-sized, crestless jay with gray-brown back and blue wings. Upper breast, throat, and chin are white with streaks. Head is blue with gray mask and narrow white eyebrow. Tail and undertail coverts are blue. Forages on ground. Flies with steady bouyant wing beats.

● Song: "quay-quay-quay", "quay-fee"

● Foraging & Feeding: Island Scrub-Jay: Eats rodents, crustaceans, mollusks, small birds, insects, and nestlings and eggs of other birds. Also gathers nuts and stores them in pits, covering them with vegetation; forages on the ground and in trees and bushes.

● Breeding & nesting: Island Scrub-Jay: Two to seven pale blue-green eggs marked with light olive and brown are laid in a nest made of twigs, rootlets, and grass, and built from 2 to 12 feet above the ground in a bush or low in a tree. Incubation ranges from 16 to 19 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Island Scrub-Jay: None in range.

Flight Pattern

Flies with steady buoyant wing beats. Glides between perches within trees, between trees, and from tree to ground.
Island Scrub-Jay Breeding Male Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Island Scrub-Jay: Restricted to Santa Cruz Island, about 20 miles off the coast of California.
BreedingMonogamous, Semicolonial
PopulationFairly common
MigrationNonmigratory
Weight4.1 - 4.4 Ounces