The Island Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma insularis) also Island Jay or Santa Cruz Jay is a bird in the Aphelocoma (scrub jay) genus which is endemic to Santa Cruz Island off the coast of Southern California. It is closely related to the "California" Scrub Jay – the coastal population of Western Scrub Jay found on the adjacent mainland – but differs in being larger, more brightly colored, and having a markedly stouter bill. The large bill size is related to its diet, incorporating the thick-shelled acorns of the Island Oak (Quercus tomentella). They will bury, or cache, the acorns in the fall and may eat them months later. They also eat insects, spiders, snakes, lizards, mice and other birds' eggs and nestlings.
Read more about Island Scrub Jay: Taxonomy, Distribution and Habitat, Conservation Status
Famous quotes containing the words island, scrub and/or jay:
“The shifting islands! who would not be willing that his house should be undermined by such a foe! The inhabitant of an island can tell what currents formed the land which he cultivates; and his earth is still being created or destroyed. There before his door, perchance, still empties the stream which brought down the material of his farm ages before, and is still bringing it down or washing it away,—the graceful, gentle robber!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I rise in the dawn, and I kneel and blow
Till the seed of the fire flicker and glow;
And then I must scrub and bake and sweep
Till the stars are beginning to blink and peep;
And the young lie long and dream in their bed....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“What, is the jay more precious than the lark
Because his feathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel
Because his painted skin contents the eye?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)