Steller's Jay

About the Steller's Jay
Steller's Jay

The Steller’s Jay is a species of corvid native to western North America. They are closely related to Blue Jays. Steller’s Jays have deep blue plumage with black heads and upper-bodies.

Steller’s Jays are omnivorous, eating both plant and animal matter, including nuts, seeds, berries, eggs, invertebrates, and even eggs and nestlings of other birds. Like other jay species, Steller’s Jays will cache food like acorns and seeds during a time of plenty to be consumed later.

Steller’s Jays are gregarious, and noisy. They have many different calls and vocalizations, including calls that imitate birds of prey and warning calls which other species recognize.

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Details & Statistics

Conservation

The Steller's Jay is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and was last assessed in 2012 by BirdLife International. This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population trend appears to be increasing, and hence the species does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is extremely large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

International Names