Aphelocoma californica

Staying with my parents in the San Francisco Bay Area for the weekend before a trip up to Portland, OR. This Western Scrub Jay was squawking harshly with an acorn in its beak while I was stalking Anna's Hummingbirds in the backyard. The pictures of it turned out much better than those of the hummers.

The Western Scrub Jay was once considered one species with the Island Scrub Jay and Florida Scrub Jay, which live exclusively on the Channel Islands (off California's southern coast) and in Florida, respectively. Its diet is highly varied, consisting of everything from lizards and frogs to young birds and eggs, as well as insects, berries, nuts, and acorns.

Like other members of the corvid family, WSJs store foodstuffs in caches, with the ability to recall their location after long periods of time. Jays are known to plunder the caches of other jays; individuals will sometimes wait to approach their cache until they are sure no other jay is watching them. Jays' caching behavior speaks to their unusual intelligence among birds and animals in general.