The Steller Jays 

 No. 10 



Steller's Jay 



No. 10a Blue-fronted Jay 



A. O. U. No. 478a. Cyanocitta stelleri frontalis (Ridgway). 



Synonyms. — Mountain Jay. "Blue Jay." "Jaybird." 



Description. — Adults: Conspicuously crested. In general, foreparts sooty 

 black, remaining plumage rich blue. Head including crest and jugulum sooty brown 

 or sooty black, the longer feathers of crest bluish-tinged; chin and throat heavily 

 streaked with grayish or bluish white (streaks nearly confluent in fresh plumage); 

 forehead and forecrown sharply and heavily streaked with light blue and whitish 

 (olympic blue to light sky-blue); cervix (broadly), upper back, and scapulars, dark 

 grayish brown (dusky drab to natal brown); rump, upper tail-coverts, outer webs of 

 primaries, and posterior underparts light blue (pale cerulean blue to light squill-blue); 

 breast (shading each way) and wing-coverts darker blue (gendarme-blue to dark cadet- 

 blue); exposed portions of inner primaries, secondaries, and rectrices dark blue (ranging 

 from dusk}' greenish blue to grayish violaceous blue) ; the concealed portions blackish; 

 the greater wing-coverts faintly, the inner secondaries, tertials, and rectrices sharply 

 and rather finely barred with black. Bill and feet black; iris brown. Plumage wear 

 shows chiefly in darkening of throat and in reduction of frontal streaking. Young 

 birds have the wing colors of adult, with barring merely indicated, but lack the blue 

 body plumage; foreparts and back sooty brown to dusky drab, changing posteriorly 

 to plumbeous. Length of adult male 304.8 (12.00) or under; wing 146.5 (5.75); tail 

 I 3° (5-35); bill 2 9-5 (1.16); tarsus 42 (1.65). Females decidedly smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Robin size; black crest; blue and sooty black coloration 

 unmistakable; harsh notes. 



Nesting. — Nest: Usually in top of evergreen sapling of thicket, or variously in 

 evergreen trees; composed exteriorly of small sticks and trash, interiorly of coarse 

 rootlets, or needles of some long-leafed pine; the whole strengthened by a nearly in- 

 visible bowl of mud. Eggs: 4, rarely 5; pale bluish green (pale glaucous green, pale 

 niagara green), spotted sparingly with deep olive or olive-brown (also Saccardo's 

 umber or sepia). Av. size 30.2 x 22.6 (1.19 x .89); index 74.8. Season: April 20-June 

 10, according to altitude; one brood. 



Range of Cyanocitta stelleri. — Western North America from Alaska south to the 

 highlands of Central America. 



Range of C. s. frontalis (chiefly contained within California). — Common resident 

 of Transition and Canadian zones throughout the Sierra Nevada and the neighboring 

 non-arid ranges of northern and southern California, south to the San Pedro Martir 

 Mountains of Lower California. According to Grinnell, this form occurs in the northern 

 coast ranges south to Mount Saint Helena and Mount George, and pushes through 

 to the coast; thus interrupting the range of carbonacea in Sonoma County. In all 

 probability the birds which occur throughout the inner ranges of Santa Barbara County 

 are also related to the Sierran type more closely than to that of the humid coastal 

 belt. Ventures out somewhat upon the lower levels in fall and winter. 



Authorities. — Gambel (Cyanocorax stelleri), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. 

 iii., 1847, p. 201; Feilner, Ann. Rept. Smithsonian Inst, for 1864 (1865), p. 427 (habits); 

 Ridgway, Amer. Journ. Sci., ser. 3, vol. v., 1873, p. 41 (description of frontalis); Goss, 



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