Steller's Jay

About the Steller's Jay

Steller's jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) is a bird native to western North America and the mountains of Central America, closely related to the blue jay (C. cristata) found in eastern North America. It is the only crested jay west of the Rocky Mountains. It is also sometimes colloquially called a "blue jay" in the Pacific Northwest, but is distinct from the blue jay of eastern North America. The species inhabits pine-oak and coniferous forests.

Steller's jay was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the crows in the genus Corvus and coined the binomial name Corvus stelleri. Gmelin based his account on "Stellers crow" that had been described in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham had examined a specimen belonging to the naturalist Joseph Banks that had been collected in Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island off the Pacific coast of Canada. The specimen was one of the birds collected on Captain James Cook's third voyage to the Pacific Ocean. During this voyage Cook visited Nootka Sound from 29 March... Wikipedia →