Photo courtesy of All About Birds by Brian E. Small
The Pinyon Jay
Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus
Photo courtesy of All About Birds by Brian E. Small |
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Corvidae
Genus: Gymnorhinus
Species: cyanocephalus
Background
The Pinyon Jay is a small, blue, crow-like bird that specializes in the harvest, transport, caching and later retrieval of seeds. Discovered by Alexander Philip Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied in 1833, the Pinyon Jay is a highly social species found in large flocks in the pinyon pine forests of the southwestern United States (Balda, 2002). “A bird addicted to seeds,” the Pinyon Jay’s ability to remember thousands of individual seed locations allows courting and breeding to proceed into the winter months (Marzluff and Balda, 1992, p. 1). This website provides information about the Pinyon Jay’s habitat and predators, food and caching behavior, social spacing, social organization, and mating system. To learn more about the Pinyon Jay click on the links below.
¨Home ¨Habitat and Predators ¨ Food and Caching Behavior ¨ Social Spacing
¨Social Organization ¨ Mating System ¨ Summary ¨ References
This webpage was created by Ali Rittenberg '09 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Biology 323--Animal Behavior taught by Dr. Verna Case.
© Copyright 2007 Department of Biology, Davidson College, Davidson, NC 28035
Send comments, questions, and suggestions to alrittenberg@davidson.edu
