26 February 2012
When volunteers compared notes after the Pittsburgh Christmas Bird Count on 1 January 2012, someone remarked that they hadn’t seen many blue jays this winter. Everyone at the Pittsburgh CBC Dinner nodded.
This morning I remembered that remark and looked through my bird observations to see how often I’ve recorded blue jays.
Amazingly I’ve seen them only four times this winter: On November 6 and 13, December 4 and 11. Three of those observations were at the same spot at Moraine State Park and were perhaps the same individual bird. Meanwhile, I have not seen a blue jay in Pittsburgh for at least four months.
If the blue jays aren’t here, where are they? (*)
Have you seen any blue jays lately?
(*) UPDATE, September 19, 2019: Science Magazine reports today that the blue jay population has declined in North America by 25% since 1970. One quarter of them haven’t left for somewhere else. They’re just plain gone.
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BLUE JAY ABUNDANCE INFORMATION: February 2012 to January 2023
- Click here for an eBird map of blue jay abundance in Pennsylvania 2014-2019. On an annual basis blue jay abundance peaks in Pennsylvania in September and falls to its lowest point in late February. Click on the [Change Location] button to choose your own state or province.
- March 2012: I mapped readers’ sightings on The Blue Jay Report here.
- June 2013: New comments have come in from folks who are seeing far fewer blue jays than they expect. I asked 1,200 observers in Pennsylvania (via PABIRDS) if they were seeing fewer blue jays. Everyone said they were seeing plenty of blue jays but one person commented that 17-year cicadas seemed to depress blue jay abundance in advance of the cicada emergence. If you have fewer blue jays, are you also in a cicada area?
- September 2014: Lots of blue jays moving south through Acadia National Park on the coast of Maine when I was there in early September. Lots of blue jays in the Pittsburgh area.
- May 2019: At Magee Marsh Boardwalk on Ohio I counted 200 blue jays migrating north along the southern shore of Lake Erie – my all time high count.
- May 2021: At Ottawa NWR in Ohio I counted 160 blue jays, also on migration along the southern shore of Lake Erie. These high counts are very weather-dependent.
- Sept & Oct 2021: High counts of migration through Frick & Schenley Parks of 24-26 blue jays.
- May 2022: High count of 23 blue jays on migration in Schenley Park.
- Fall 2022: High counts of blue jays on migration in Frick and Schenley are in the teens.
- 2022: In Frick and Schenley in non-migration months the counts were generally 1 to 1 . Migration Months of May, Sept and Oct were in the teens.
- 31 Dec 2022, New Year’s Eve: Mid weather in Pittsburgh after a severe cold snap in eastern North America on Christmas broght 19 blue jays to Schenley Park during the Christmas Bird Count. I suspect these were northern visitors who left rural areas for warmth and food in the city.
- January 2023: Blue jay numbers in the city, when present, are back down to the single digits.
(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)