Extralimital: Steller's Jay

ex·tra·lim·it·al

  [ek-struh-lim-i-tl]

adjective

not found within a given geographical area: an extralimital species of bird.

The first in an intermittent series of posts on birds not generally seen in the DVOC area.

The Steller's Jay makes its home in the evergreen forests of the western United States. It is a bird of the mountains. We saw these on a recent trip to Yosemite National Park.

Similar but slightly larger than our familiar Blue Jay (we heard a number of people talking about the "different blue jays" they have out here) the Steller's Jay is gorgeous bird, with a stunning blue body and charcoal head.

And like the Blue Jay these guys are intelligent and inquisitive. I didn't need to go looking for them to get these pictures, they came to us. The two shown above were part of a contingent that greeted us at the top of Vernal Fall, where we sat down to lunch, feeding on our crumbs (or the table scraps provided by my fellow hikers). They were competing with these guys ...

... California Ground Squirrels. Both species have learned to associate humans with food and had little fear of us much larger creatures. I actually had to push the squirrels away with my hiking poles!

The first Steller's Jays we encountered were at our hotel, the Wawona, which first opened in 1879. It was there, while enjoying an adult beverage or two on the large porch that we saw this fellow:

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

Note the bill (click on this or any other image to bigafy it). We originally thought that, living in conifer forests, the crossbill was an adaptation. We soon learned that this was an aberrant individual. But one doing quite well for itself, judging by the food supplied it by the patrons of the hotel. Having found a reliable food source was it any wonder we saw it gathering nest material?

We quite enjoyed having these jays as our companions both on the trails and after. If you find yourself in the mountains out west be sure to look for them. Or rather just wait for them to find you.