Pinyon jay
A dusty-blue crow relative that travels Mesa Verde and Black Canyon in loud flocks, burying pine seeds it will dig up again later.
Pinyon jay at a glance
Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus PIN-yun jay; Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus is jim-noh-RY-nuss sy-an-oh-SEF-uh-luss
- Type
- Bird · corvids
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Size
- Body length runs about 10 to 12 inches (26 to 30 cm), roughly a school ruler and a bit more, stocky and short-tailed, somewhere between a robin and a crow in size.
- Lifespan
- The oldest banded pinyon jay on record, in Arizona, was at least 14 years and 7 months old.
- Conservation
- Vulnerable
Eats pinyon pine seeds, insects, seeds it cached in earlier seasons
A pinyon jay's beak and the bare skin around its nostrils are shaped for prying seeds out of sticky, resin-covered pine cones. Each summer and fall it buries far more seeds in the ground than it eats right away, then comes back to find its own caches later.
Should you worry?
Harmless. A flock is loud and bold but has no interest in people beyond curiosity. Never feed one; human food can pull a flock away from the pine-seed caches it depends on.
The sound comes before the birds do: a rolling, nagging chatter moving through the pinyon-juniper woodland at Mesa Verde, dozens of dusty-blue voices at once. A pinyon jay flock doesn’t slip through quietly the way most songbirds do. It announces itself, treetop to treetop, calling the whole time.
The reason for all that motion is buried in the ground behind them. NPS says the bird’s beak and the bare patch of skin around its nostrils are built for one job: prying seeds out of pine cones sealed shut with resin. A jay pries far more seeds loose than it can eat in a day, so it buries the rest, scattering caches across its home range each fall and coming back to dig up its own stash through the winter. It doesn’t find every cache. NPS at Mesa Verde says the seeds it forgets are the ones that “help to grow more trees and keep the forest healthy,” so the same bird that depends on pinyon pine more than any other in the park is also, without meaning to, planting the next generation of it.
That partnership is getting harder to count on. Surveys show pinyon jay numbers have generally slipped in recent decades, enough that the IUCN now lists the species as Vulnerable. Standing under a pinyon at Mesa Verde or Black Canyon, listening to a flock work its way through the branches overhead, is still the easiest way to hear what that partnership sounds like while it’s holding.
Did you know?
- Its beak and the bare skin around its nostrils are shaped for prying seeds out of sticky, resin-covered pinecones.
- It buries far more pine seeds than it can eat and relies on finding its own hidden caches again later; the ones it never finds can grow into new trees.
- It nests in colonies, with a few pairs building nests close together, usually no more than one to three nests in the same tree.
Common questions
Why do pinyon jays travel in such big, noisy flocks?
They move together searching for pine cone crops and for the seed caches they buried earlier, calling constantly to stay in touch as a group.
What do pinyon jays eat?
Mostly pinyon pine seeds, which they pry out of sticky cones and often bury for later, plus insects.
Are pinyon jays endangered?
They're listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. Surveys show the population has generally been declining in recent decades.
Why are they called pinyon jays?
Because their range and their whole yearly routine, nesting, flocking, and food caching, are tied closely to pinyon pine trees.