Thursday's Bird Watch

The California Scrub-Jay as photographed on September 13th continues to be the most active bird species to be seen here in Dallas Retirement Village.  They are busy all day long bringing in oak tree acorns to bury for winter.  I get asked many times about these "blue jays".  Strictly speaking we do not have Blue Jays in Oregon.  Blue Jays occur East of the Rockies.  To complicate matters, our jays have been called various names as ornithologist continue to reclassify this bird.  If you look at a bird guide from 1990, our jays will be referred to as Scrub Jays.  If you look at a bird guide from 2000, they will be referred to as Western Scrub-Jays.  But a bird guide from this decade will refer to them as California Scrub-Jays.