Western Bird Guide: Birds of the Rockies and West to the Pacific

by Charles K. Reed

Range.—From Alaska south to central California. Nests are quite bulky; three to six greenish eggs, spotted with shades of brown (1.25 × .90).

WOODHOUSE JAY.

480. Aphelocoma woodhousei. 12 inches.

These birds are abundant in the Great Basin between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas, breeding in scrubby trees or bushes at low elevations and usually near some stream. They have the crown and forehead bluish, and the under parts are gray, streaked with a darker shade on the breast. Their food consists of acorns and a variety of insects.

Nest.—This is usually of small sticks, loosely arranged, with smaller twigs and roots for a lining. Four to six eggs, of a pale green, faintly spotted with shades of brown (1.20 × .90).

CALIFORNIA JAY.

481. Aphelocoma californica. 12 inches.

These are the most common of the Jays on the Pacific coast of California, Oregon and Washington. They are more tame or fearless than most of the family, and frequent the trees about houses, and are given the bad name of robbing the nests of other birds of their eggs and young. In color these are just the reverse of the previous one, being brownish below, and gray above.