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Jays of the stelleri group are widely distributed in western North America and Central America, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast and from the Alaska Peninsula southward to Nicaragua. They are the crested blue jays of this vast region, where they replace our familiar blue jay of the East and share many of its interesting habits and some of its bad manners. The subject of this sketch is the northern race, extending its range in the Pacific coast region only as far south as Washington. There are five other races that are found north of the Mexican boundary.

Steller’s jay is the oldest known race of this species, named by Gmelin in 1788, yet after more than 150 years it is far from being the best-known subspecies. It was known by description to all the early writers on American ornithology and was figured by Swainson and Richardson (1831), Wilson and Bonaparte (1832), and Audubon (1842). Bonaparte says, in his continuation of Wilson’s “American Ornithology,” that “it is mentioned by Pallas as having been shot by Steller, when Behring’s crew landed upon the coast of America. It was first described by Latham from a specimen in Sir Joseph Bank’s collection, from Nootka Sound.”

The haunts of Steller’s jay are chiefly in the coniferous forests of southern Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington as far south as the Columbia River, where it begins to intergrade with the subspecies carbonacea. But it is not wholly confined to the forests, as it often ventures out into the clearings, orchards, and farms on its mischievous raids for food. Bendire (1895) says: “It is usually a constant resident and breeds wherever found. It is an inhabitant of the canyons and pine-clad slopes of the higher mountains, and is not as often seen in the deep forests as on their outskirts near water courses.”

Nesting.—We waited nearly 3 weeks for our ship to sail from Seattle to the Aleutian Islands, but we made our headquarters in the meantime at the little town of Kirkland, across Lake Washington from the city, and spent our time profitably by collecting in the vicinity. At that time much of this region was heavily wooded with a primeval forest of lofty firs, but the greater part of it had been lumbered and had grown up to small or medium-sized second-growth firs. Much of it had been cleared and cultivated, with houses and little farms scattered through it. There were two or three species of firs forming the principal forest growth, with a considerable mixture of hemlock and a very handsome species of cedar; the deciduous growth consisted of large alders and some maples and flowering dogwoods. Here we found Steller’s jays quite common and discovered several of their nests between April 30 and May 20. The first nest we found, on April 30, was new but still empty; it was placed about 10 feet from the ground against the trunk of a small fir in the coniferous woods. It had a bulky foundation of large sticks, on which was a layer of dead leaves and mud and then a firmly woven, deeply hollowed nest of coarse rootlets. Another nest was 14 feet up in a thick fir in an open situation in the coniferous woods; it held four young only a few days old; the old bird remained on the nest until I almost touched her, when she flew off and scolded me with a mewing squawk. We found one other new nest and several old ones, all similarly located and constructed.

There are three sets in my collection from the same general region. In one case the nest was 10 feet from the ground and 15 feet out on a limb of a small lone fir on the edge of a prairie pond, near some mixed fir and oak growth, and 100 yards from a house. One of the others was 12 feet up in a green spruce; and the nest from which the other was taken was said to have been on a shelf in a woodshed!

Published accounts of the nesting of Steller’s jay are not numerous, but the following from D. E. Brown (1930) is worth quoting: “This species usually nests at a moderate height. The majority of nests will be found from eight to fifteen feet from the ground, but the writer has found them only two feet up, and has seen them well over one hundred feet from the ground on the horizontal branches of giant firs.

“In the early part of the season coniferous trees are used almost exclusively. * * * Later when the deciduous trees are in full leaf they are quite often used. This fact is brought out by the number of old nests that are found in the fall when the leaves have shed.”

The location of one nest, well within the city limits of Seattle, puzzled him until it was found “only two feet from the ground in the center of a mass of salal bushes and blackberry vines.” He continues:

The birds nest regularly in Seattle city parks often on trees or branches that lean over trails that are used by hundreds of people daily. I have seen at least three such nests that were so low that they could be touched with the hand from the trail. * * *

The nest is usually very large and sometimes composed of twigs so large it hardly seems possible that the birds could handle them. A very thick layer of mud weighs down and cements the nest together, and it is lined with rootlets that are worked in while wet. The very start of the nest is always some light colored material such as cedar bark, leaves of the maple tree, shreds of decayed wood or pieces of newspaper. Samuel F. Rathbun of Seattle once found a nest in one of the parks that had a handkerchief worked into its foundation, a variation somewhat unusual in nest material.

Mr. Rathbun has sent me his notes on several nests of Steller’s jay, and says: “With one exception all the nests of this jay I have found were placed in coniferous trees, usually firs of not large size, and oftener the location of the tree would be in a rather dense part of the wood. Often the place selected for a nest is the fork formed by several small branches jutting from the trunk wherein are lodged a number of dry, dead leaves, and on these is placed a little platform of twigs that forms the base of the nest, as if the jay attempted to convey the idea that the structure is only some rubbish caught by the branches. In fact, more than once our attention has first been caught by noticing dead leaves in what might be considered an out-of-the-way place, and on a nearer approach the material was seen to be the commencement of a jay’s nest.

“As to the height of the nests, the lowest was only 8 feet from the ground, the highest 40, and the average of all 20 to 25 feet. I have always found Steller’s jay to be quiet and secretive in the general locality where it was breeding—one would not know that there was a jay anywhere around; but when its nest is disturbed the jay makes a great outcry, and then silently leaves the place.”

He gives the dimensions of one nest as follows: Extreme outside diameter, 14 inches; outside height, 6 inches; inside diameter, 5 inches; and inside depth, 2¼ inches.

Eggs.—Steller’s jay lays three to five eggs, usually four. These are ovate and only slightly glossy. The ground color is pale greenish blue, or pale bluish green, “pale turquoise green” to “pale Nile blue” or paler, or “pale sulphate green” to “microcline green” or paler, sometimes almost greenish white. Some eggs are more or less sparingly marked with fine dots; others are more or less irregularly spotted with small spots, fine dots and markings of indefinite shape. The markings are in different shades of dark browns or purplish brown, or shades of olive, more or less evenly distributed.

The measurements of 40 eggs average 31.4 by 22.5 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 34.5 by 22.8, 33.5 by 24.0, 27.8 by 22.3, and 30.4 by 20.6 millimeters.

Plumages.—Ridgway (1904) describes the juvenal plumage as follows: “Wings and tail as in adults, but the blue usually more greenish (china blue to cerulean blue) and usually (?) without distinct black bars on secondaries or rectrices; under parts, rump, and upper tail-coverts dull slate-grayish, the former becoming darker and more sooty anteriorly; head and neck plain sooty or dark sooty slate, the forehead without any blue streaks.”

Young birds begin the postjuvenal molt late in July or early in August; this molt, which involves everything but the wings and tail, is usually completed during August, but it sometimes continues until after the middle of September. In this first winter plumage young birds are practically indistinguishable from the adult female, having the black barring on the secondaries and rectrices less distinct than in the adult male, or sometimes entirely wanting.

The complete postnuptial molt of adults begins in July and is often completed before the middle of August; I have records of adults in fresh winter plumage as early as August 10. The molts average somewhat later in the more southern subspecies. The sexes are alike in all plumages, except that the females are somewhat smaller and have less distinct bars on the secondaries and tail feathers.

Food.—As the food of the California subspecies has been much more thoroughly studied than that of this northern race, and as the feeding habits of the species probably vary but little in the different portions of its range, this subject has been more thoroughly discussed under the blue-fronted jay. Two reports, however, are worth quoting here. Referring to Vancouver Island, Harry S. Swarth (1912) writes: “At Errington, in September, the jays were exceedingly abundant, particularly about the edges of the pastures and grain fields. Harvesting operations were in progress at this time, and a wheat field near our camp had just been cut and the grain piled in shocks. On those nearest the edges of the field, close to the shelter of the woods, the jays were feeding by scores; when startled most of the birds departed, carrying one or more long straws with them, to be thrashed out at their leisure in the nearby woods. Certain favorite stumps and logs were well covered with straws from which the grain had been eaten.”

Ford Dicks (1938) reports considerable damage done by these jays in filbert orchards near Puyallup, Wash., and says: “As a matter of fact, the writer has known of instances where the entire nut crop was lost due to the depredations of Steller’s Jays in late summer and early fall, at which time the fruit is approaching maturity.”

Behavior.—Although bold in the defense of their nests and rather tame about camps and houses, where their intelligence tells them that they are not in danger, they are very shy in the open woods, much shier than our eastern blue jay, and difficult to approach or shoot when pursued. They often escape by “climbing” some tall spruce or fir, starting on one of the lower branches and hopping or flitting upward from branch to branch around the trunk, as if climbing a spiral staircase, until the summit is reached, when off they go with a derisive scream. At such times their movements are so lively that it is not easy to shoot one. They sometimes travel through the forest in this way, descending from the top of one tree to the lower part of another and so on from tree to tree, until out of sight. The best way to outwit them is to remain well concealed and imitate their notes, to which their curiosity will generally lead one or more of them to respond. They are notorious as nest robbers and seem to be cordially hated and dreaded by the smaller birds, but they are not always guilty of this practice. William L. Finley (1907) says of a pair that he watched: “If this pair of jays carried on their nest robbing, they did it on the quiet away from home, for in the thicket and only a few yards away I found a robin’s nest with eggs, and the nest of a thrush with young birds. Perhaps the jays wanted to stand well with their neighbors and live in peace. I am sure if the robins had thought the jays were up to mischief, they would have hustled them out of the thicket. I think we give both the crow and the jay more blame for nest robbing than they deserve.”

Alfred M. Bailey (1927) writes:

They are robbers of the first order, and steal anything edible about camp. I do not know whether we are able to give birds credit for a sense of humor, but if we do, then the Jays surely must come in for first place. I have watched a pair of these fellows tease a spaniel. They would alight in a path, only to be chased away by the dog, and they kept returning so often as to completely exhaust him; then, when the dog refused to chase them longer, they would alight over his head and talk to him,—undoubtedly they were cursing him, until he finally got up and walked away. The same performance was carried on daily. This species is not particularly in favor among hunters, for when one is quietly crossing a muskeg in the hope of jumping a deer, it is the usual thing to have a couple of Jays open a serenade, and then keep just ahead of the hunter, talking all the time.

Voice.—Dawson and Bowles (1909) give the best description of the varied notes of this jay, as follows: “The notes of the Steller Jay are harsh and expletive to a degree. Shaack, shaack, shaack is a common (and most exasperating) form; or, by a little stretch of the imagination one may hear jay, jay, jay. A mellow klook, klook, klook sometimes varies the rasping imprecations and serves to remind one that the Jay is cousin to the Crow. Other and minor notes there are for the lesser and rarer emotions, and some of these are not unmusical.”

Leslie L. Haskin writes to me that, like so many other jays, it has a scream like that of the red-tailed hawk, which may be a true jay note rather than an imitation of the hawk. He says further: “Steller’s jay also has a true song of his own. I have heard it only a few times, but it is very sweet in tone. In many ways it resembles the ‘whisper songs’ that many birds indulge in in winter. Because of the extreme shyness of these birds, and the softness of the song, it is very hard to hear. Only when the bird is entirely unaware of observation will it be given. I would compare it with the ‘whisper song’ of the American robin, as I have heard that bird on cold winter days singing in red cedar tangles in the East. In it are also some tones that suggest the song of the ruby-crowned kinglet, but not so loud. Heard without seeing the performer, it could easily be mistaken for the kinglet. Altogether it is a very interesting and surprising performance.”

Theed Pearse writes to me that he has heard it mimicking the crow’s spring falsetto song, as well as the cry of the red-tailed hawk; and has heard one “really singing a song of its own, and a very delightful one; I could not recognize any other bird’s notes, except perhaps the trill of the junco. When first heard it was a song that could not be identified as that of any local species, a strong warble, consisting of various notes with some trills; one feature was the number of different notes that the bird could go through without repetition.”

Mr. Rathbun tells me that one of this jay’s notes “is a gritting, rasping one, as rough as the edge of a saw,” and unlike any other of the bird’s notes. Dr. Samuel S. Dickey (MS.) adds the following to the bird’s vocabulary: “Ordinarily the birds vented raucous, blue jay-like cahs, but they would vary such outbursts with kirk-kirk, kirk-perk, perk-er, perk-er, or wheezy magpie-like notes, such as ca-phee, ca-phee, pheeze-ca.”

Fall.—These jays are supposed to be resident all the year round in the region where they breed. They probably do not make any regular migration, although Mr. Swarth (1922) says that, late in August, “at Sergief Island many were seen, under circumstances suggesting migration. They were frequently in small gatherings, seven or eight together, and often on tidal marshes, far from timber, apparently traveling in a definite direction. When thus seen they were flying by easy stages from one drift log to another, in a southerly direction.”

During fall and winter they are given to erratic wanderings, probably in search of food, throughout the open country and about the farms and villages. They may be very common during some seasons at certain places and scarce or entirely absent there at other seasons. Though quiet, retiring, and secretive during the nesting season, they are much more noisy, bolder or tamer, and more aggressive during the fall and winter, traveling about in family parties or small groups.

J. A. Munro tells me that Steller’s jays were very abundant on Vancouver Island during the fall of 1913; on September 30 they were industriously carrying acorns from the Garry oaks; one collected on this date had two in its gullet and one in its bill. During the winter of 1921-22 they were also unusually numerous; several hundred were caught in quail traps. On February 1, 1923, there was an invasion of these jays at Victoria; 50 were strung on a wire at the game farm, and the operator mentioned catching seven at one time in a quail trap.