Western Scrub-jay

The western scrub-jay is a non-migratory bird that lives in the western United States and Mexico. There are three subspecies of western scrub-jays, California, Woodhouse's, and Sumichrast's. The California subspecies lives allow the west coast. They usually have a thicker beak which is good for breaking up acorns. The Woodhouse's subspecies is found in the western interior of the US and northern Mexico while the Sumichrast's subspecies is found in the mountains of southern Mexico. These two subspecies have thinner beaks which help to get to the pine nuts inside of pine cones. The bird pictured above was photographed in Colorado which would make it a Woodhouse's western scrub-jay. All of the western scrub-jay's are very smart. They are a member of the Corvidae family which has some of the smartest birds on the planet. They plan for the future by caching food and can remember the locations of many different cache locations. They also are good at finding and stealing from the caches of other birds.