California Scrub Jay

(Originally sent as as email, December 2016)

On a late 2016 visit to Lake Solano Park we spotted a scrub-jay perched in a tree along the picnic area.

Only last year the birding guidebooks listed this species as the Western Scrub-Jay, Aphelocoma californica. The AOU committee voted to grant full species status to our coastal subspecies, which is now the California Scrub-Jay. Likewise, the subspecies seen in the interior and parts of the southwest was also elevated to full species status, namely Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay, Aphelocoma woodhouseii. See Recent Checklist Changes for details and range maps of the 2 species.

Interesting to note that older books listed the 2 groups as separate species, both without the name "scrub-jay", so we had the California Jay and Woodhouse's Jay, along with 2 other Aphelocoma species, the Florida Jay (now Florida Scrub-Jay) and the Santa Cruz Jay (now Island Scrub Jay). These 4 species are quite similar in appearance. The Woodhouse Scrub-Jay blue color is less striking, and it lacks the incomplete blue collar that borders the white bib.

The incomplete blue collar is seen better in a side view, taken at Bodega Bay a few years ago:

Cheers,

Len