Woodhouse's Scrub Jay at Zion Naitonal Park

All of my California friends will look at this bird and say that it's just a scrub jay, just like the ones in our backyard, and until 2016 this would have been true. The Western Scrub Jay was the name given these blue corvids, but there were some consistent regional differences, and in 2016 those who decide such things divided the species into two. One of them is the California Scrub Jay, the one that populates the Golden State and the other Pacific coast states (as well as Baja). But in the southwest states, the bird is now known as the Woodhouse's Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma woodhouseii).

We were at Zion National Park in early June, and saw this one at the Pa'rus Trail bridge over the Virgin River. The Woodhouse's Scrub Jay has been isolated from the California Scrub Jay by the coastal mountains and deserts, and the birds have evolved to utilize different food sources, with the California species preferring acorns, and the Woodhouse's species going after pine nuts (they all will eat insects and fruits at The Woodhouse's is a less intense shade of blue with a grayer breast than the California bird.