Pinyon jays are raucous, gregarious birds often associated with piรฑon-juniper woodlands throughout the Great Basin ecosystem and up into Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. The bird’s range pretty much patterns with the distribution of two-needled and one-needled pinyon pines, except for jay populations that live in ponderosa pine forests in the Northwest. Though widely distributed, this iconic bird of pine-dominated woodlands is under duress from population declines estimated to be around 80% over the past 50 years.
In 2017, a Pinyon Jay Working Group was formed to review the population distribution and conservation requirements of this species. From a small flock of conservation groups, this partnership has expanded to over 35 groups including state and federal agencies, conservation organizations, educational institutions and others, to gather data for a range-wide assessment of the species’ distribution and conservation needs.
This assessment led to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service being petitioned to protect the pinyon jay under the Endangered Species Act in 2022. The USFWS determined that the petition warranted a more in-depth review in 2023.
An August 2023 press release by Defenders of Wildlife included the following quote: “Now that this critical finding is made, Fish and Wildlife will begin a scientific review of the species’ status to determine if listing the bird is warranted,” said Bryan Bird, Defenders of Wildlife Southwest program director. “This charismatic bird will now receive the full attention of the federal government.”
This status review will likely uncover new and interesting information about the habitat use and seasonal distribution patterns of the pinyon jays. Though not new information, it is interesting that pinyon jays occur in central Oregon, often associated with ponderosa pine habitat along with California scrub-jay and Steller’s jay.
“In 2012, Cal Elshoff, a retired school teacher, mentioned at a bird meeting that he had banded a pinyon jay several years ago but hadn’t gotten a return,” said Kevin Smith, a volunteer with the East Cascades Bird Alliance. Smith had been seeing pinyon jays at his home in Crooked River Ranch, and so he started a network of volunteers to watch for and record pinyon jay movements at their homes. “Someone would call with a sighting and a heading direction, so I’d call another volunteer to be on the lookout for birds headed their way, but the jays had other ideas.”
This random movement led to Smith and Ken Hashagen, a retired wildlife biologist and certified bird bander, to start trapping jays about six years ago. “We attached a federal silver leg band on one leg and a color band to indicate where and when the birds had been banded,” said Hashagen. The idea was to be able to relocate these birds through observations to determine their seasonal movements and longevity.
Several birds banded in Sisters ended up in the Crooked River Ranch area about 10 miles away. “This was a surprise because there aren’t any ponderosa pines in the Crooked River Ranch area,” said Smith who has also observed the jays feeding in sagebrush areas, probably on insects.
“Here in Central Oregon little is known about pinyon jays,” said Laurel Collins, ECBA board member and chair of the conservation and science committee. “Much more needs to be learned in this area about the numbers of birds, their life cycle, what they eat and where they overwinter before we can definitively say what the biggest threats are here in Oregon.”
To address the question of seasonal movement, the Great Basin Bird Observatory, located in Nevada, began a radio telemetry project by trapping jays and affixing small radio transmitters to the tail feathers. Associated with this work, Jherime Kellerman, a professor in the Natural Sciences Department at the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls, and one of his grad students, are also gearing up to attach transmitters to the jays in central Oregon. Though they haven’t attached any transmitters to date, they hope to capitalize on birds coming to the traps Hashagen has set.
So how can anyone help on this project? GBBO developed an app to record pinyon jay sightings by citizen scientists, which allows them to report banded birds or pinyon jay sightings or the lack of pinyon jays, which is also good data. Contact ECBA to sign up to volunteer for this study at ecba@ecbirds.org.
This article appears in Source Weekly November 21, 2024.
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