Draper Natural History Museum Curator Corey Anco recently shared how to spot a pinyon jay in your backyard.
“ This is about a robin sized bird. It's a dusky blue, with a little bit more kind of gray plumage or feathers on the chest.”
Anco said people often confuse them for a mountain bluebird, which are actually much smaller than pinyon jays.
“ And if you look at the beak, the beak of Pinyon Jays is much longer,” Anco added.
Pinyon jays make a crow-like “caw” sound. You can listen to audio of pinyon jay calls from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology here.
Pinyon jays are able to store seeds in their esophagus. The ones they hide and forget about may be helping the threatened tree species limber pine, found in Wyoming, recover.
The Draper Natural History Museum is leading a research project to document pinyon jay habitat, nesting and feeding patterns in the Bighorn Basin. Researchers are looking at potential overlap with sage grouse habitat. Results will help inform future land management decisions.
Anco said the first year of field work has been completed.
“ Last year we were able to band 64 birds from five different locations around Park County. Twenty-six of those birds received GPS units, which are used to collect and store data that pertain to the bird's movements. We also collected saliva samples from every bird, and blood samples where possible, to test for the presence of pathogens and for downstream genetic analyses,” he said.
Anco said this year, the project aims to re-capture the birds with the GPS units to record data and to expand survey work to the east side of the Bighorn basin.
