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[Species] | Whiskey jack

The whiskey jack (Perisoreus canadensis), also known as grey jay or camp robber is a North American member of the Corvidae. Although much of its habitat spans Canada and the US-State Alaska, it does occur as far south as New Mexico, which is one of the southernmost states of the USA.

The first formal description of this bird was given in 1760 by a French zoologist though it only received a binomial name that is officially recognised today in 1766, by a Swedish naturalist. While one of its common names refers to it as a “jay”, it along with other members of its genus isn’t actually closely related to birds typically known jays, and instead seems to be closest to the genus Cyanoica, which contains but the azure-winged magpie.

The average whiskey jack reaches a length from 25 to 29 centimetres, and weighs around 58 to 84 grams. It’s dark grey above and light grey below, with black on the back of its head, forming a partial hood. Juveniles are greyish black overall, usually showing a pale gape at the base of the bill.

Typically whiskey jacks can be found in various kinds of coniferous and mixed forests, rarely ever showing up in places without spruce trees. As one might guess based on that, they are the most common in spruce and fir forests such as black spruce bogs, aspen and Engelmann spruce forests and Sitka spruce and Douglas-fir forests.

As many other corvids too, the whiskey jack is an opportunist in its foraging, flying from tree to tree in the search of food. It will also boldly enter campsites or even cabins on its quest to steal food (thus the name camp robber) and given the chance it will attack smaller birds or rodents. Ocasionally it will fly out to catch insects mid-air and carrion is also regularly consumed, especially in the winter.

It is one of the few birds to store food items throughout the year, especially in the summer, often living on these caches in the severe winter weather. When storing food, its sticky saliva can help sticking food items in bark crevices or other spots. It can carry surprisingly large food items with its beak or sometimes feet.

Mated pairs stay together for the entire year, defending permanent territories. Early into the breeding season the male may perform courtship feeding to the female. Canada jays are among the first birds in the year in their range that start with nesting, beginning in the late winter, when breeding grounds are still covered with snow. The nest site is in dense conifers, close to the trunk at the base of a branch, typically around 5 metres above the ground. The nest itself, which is built by both sexes, is a bulky flat cup of twigs, lichens, strips of bark and caterpillar webs, lined with softer materials such as animal hair and feathers.

Up to 5 eggs are laid. The female is the only member of a pair to incubate the eggs, which takes around 18 to 22 days. At first the female broods the young while only the male brings food to the nest, though later both parents bring food. Young leave the nest at about 22 to 24 days and then remain with their parents for at least another month before being kicked out of their natal territory.

While the average whiskey jack gets to be around 8 years old before perishing, the oldest ever recorded individual reached at least 19.2 years of age. In their fledgling state whiskey jacks seem to have a 52% annual mortality rate, which goes up to 82% after being kicked out of their natal territory and decreases to around 20% as they grow up.

The whiskey jack occupies an extremely large range, and as much of their habitat is unsuitable for conversion to agricultural land, it seems to be largely secure for the foreseeable future. That being said, climate change in the form of global warming poses a real threat to whiskey jacks and is expected to shift populations farther north in the coming years. Due to its large, mostly stable, population the IUCN counts this species one of least concern.