[ 4 i8] 



BIRDS OF OREGON 



Coast Ranges. The ranges and intergradations of this bird are exceed- 

 ingly puzzling. Along the northern coast at the mouth of the Columbia, 

 the birds closely approach Cyanocitta stelleri stelleri, whereas in the south- 

 ern Cascades and Siskiyous, they intergrade with Cyanocitta stelleri frontalis . 

 Similarly, along the eastern slope of the Cascades the resident birds are 

 more like frontalis, approaching more nearly carbonacea to the northward, 

 until at Mount Hood the birds of the eastern slope are either intermediate 

 between the two forms or much closer to carbonacea. Along the western 

 slope of the Cascades, the Willamette Valley, and southern coast, the 

 birds are quite typical of carbonacea. 



Like all jays, the Coast Jay is a noisy, boisterous bird, its screams and 

 calls echoing through the woodlands whenever an intruder appears. 

 About the nest, however, it is a silent blue ghost that slips through the fir 

 branches in an astonishing vanishing act for one so highly colored. The 

 nests are usually well concealed in the thick branches of some spruce or fir 

 and are seldom discovered, so that comparatively few data are available 

 on the nesting season. Bendire (i895a) listed sets of eggs taken at 

 Beaverton April 14, 1891, and Salem April 2.6, 1891, and Swallow (1891) 

 recorded a nest with eggs nearly ready to hatch in Clatsop County on 

 May 13, 1891, and these records still represent the extreme dates of which 

 we have any knowledge. Braly, however, found a nest near Portland on 

 April 2.2., 1931, that contained young, which is evidence that this par- 

 ticular bird must have commenced laying soon after April i. It is inter- 

 esting to note that members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (Lewis 

 and Clark 1814), who first recorded this bird in Oregon on November 30, 

 1805, at the mouth of the Columbia, noticed the birds building on January 

 31, 1806. Currier, of Portland, who has probably taken more Crested 

 Jay nests than any recent collector in the State, kindly furnished us with 



FIGURE 12.. Distribution of three forms of jays in Oregon: i, Coast Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri 

 carbonacea"); 2., Blue-fronted Jay (C. s. frontalis^; 3, Black-headed Jay (C. s. annectens}. 



