Western Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma Californica)

  • Post category:PRESERVE

Status: Protected under the MBTA and/or Section 3503 of the California Fish and Game Code1

  • Healthy population

Habitat

  • Parks, neighborhoods, and riverside woods near the Pacific Coast
  • Nest site is in a shrub or tree

Feeding Behavior/Diet

  • Forages on the ground and in trees
  • Often harvests acorns and buries them
  • Omnivorous. Diet varies with season. Eats a wide variety of insects, especially in summer. Winter diet may be mostly acorns and other seeds, nuts, and berries
  • Also eats some rodents, eggs and young of other birds, and small reptiles and amphibians

Reproduction

  • Eggs 3 to 5
  • Incubation is by female, about 17-18 days
  • Young leave the nest about 18-22 days after hatching
  • One brood per year2

1 Protected under the MBTA and/or Section 3503 of the California Fish and Game Code

2 National Audubon Society