Pinyon jays, sometimes called ‘blue crows,’ are medium-sized bluish grey birds native to Western North America. They are also a vulnerable and rarely seen species that has experienced a sharp population decline. But it turns out that protecting them might be more complicated than we thought.
“Pinyon jays are kind of unique in that they're extremely social. They form these big flocks of anywhere from 15 to several hundred birds," said Rory Eggleston, a Ph.D. candidate at Utah State University who studies these gregarious birds.
“They forage together," she said. "They're always calling to each other and trying to be in contact. Even when you see one along alone, it's almost always just kind of lagging behind the pack, and it's trying to catch up to the big group of birds.”
As a researcher, Eggleston has spent a lot of time tracking pinyon jays.
“If you've ever been in pinyon-juniper woodlands and heard the sound of laughter, the sound of a high-pitched crow, you may have encountered a pinyon jay flock," she said. “They have a huge range of vocalizations, but one of the common kind of contact calls that they make in a group is this caw or this Raqqa that that kind of sounds like laughter.”
Unfortunately, across the Mountain West, pinyon jays are in decline. Once common in the early 1900s, these striking and highly social birds have declined by an estimated 80-85% since the late 1960s, according to the breeding bird survey. But protecting them is challenging since although the birds are closely tied to pinyon-juniper woodlands, they also use the edges of those woodlands, where trees mix with sagebrush, grasses, and shrubs.
“They definitely seem to need this kind of more heterogeneous mix, at least where I'm studying them in northern Utah," said Eggleston.
She further explained that pinyon jays need the trees, and the shrubs, and the grasses. And that’s part of what makes protecting them complicated. Pinyon jays don’t only rely on pinyon-juniper forests, but it turns out we didn’t always know that.
“They're probably one of, if not the most interesting birds that we have to study. And really, we didn't know much about them up until a few years ago, and we're really kind of starting to get a lot more information on pinyon jays now as we go," said Scott Gibson, the wildlife action plan coordinator with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
He says that despite their decline, pinyon jays are not yet federally listed as a threatened or endangered species.
“But they are considered a species of greatest conservation need in the state of Utah," Gibson said. "That's a designation that the state has given them, which essentially says that they are a priority species for us going forward to make sure that we gather the information necessary to understand their population status, the threats that are leading to their decline, and ways that we can alleviate those threats.”
They’re also protected in Utah under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and are labeled in many of their native states as a species of greatest conservation need.
However, as they are undeniably suffering a major decline, why aren’t they just federally listed already?
“Yeah, so being listed, federally listed on the Endangered Species Act, actually is a very specific designation, and it has a lot of legal authorities that come along with that," Gibson said. "And so, in order for a species to be listed as an endangered species on the Endangered Species Act, it has to go through a process called petitioning."
Pinyon jays themselves were petitioned for federal listing in April 2022 and they passed the 90-day outcome in August 2023. They’ve since moved to the 12-month process, meaning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has started the species’ status assessment and requested additional data from researchers, like Rory Eggleston, and state agencies, like Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. But federal listing is complicated.
“The endangered species list is not sort of a one size fits all prescription for all species," said Gibson. "There's a lot of nuanced aspects to it. For example, designation of critical habitat is something that's really important in listing of a species on the Endangered Species Act.”
For pinyon jays, that should be easy, since they’re pinyon jays. But as Eggleston mentioned, pinyon jays need more than pristine pinyon-juniper forests to survive. In addition, Gibson further explains that not all pinyon-juniper woodlands are the same, and pinyon jays use different parts of the landscape at different times of year. All of that is further complicated by disagreement around some the causes of their decline.
“Really what it boils down to, I think, at this point, is there's a lot of information we don't know,” said Gibson.
However, Gibson also said that he is optimistic, especially because of a recent swell of support for the bird and the fact that researchers, state agencies, and federal agencies are now working together on conservation strategies.
“I think there’s actually a pretty good future for pinyon jays,” he said.
He also added that management goals may be shifting from a "one species" approach to a "whole landscape" approach that he hopes will benefit pinyon jays and many other species. But even still, large trends that land managers may have no control over such drought, climate change, tree death, and larger fires remain major concerns.
“It’s not all rosy," he said. "There are definitely some bleak things in there as well.”
Still, he and Eggleston both remain optimistic. They both praise the work of other researchers and agencies and appreciate public support for their beloved birds. Hopefully with enough attention, research and collaboration, those strange, laughing calls will continue to echo into the future.
