Gray Jay at Mt. Rainier National Park

Today's bird is probably well-known to folks in the Pacific Northwest, but the species doesn't live down in my area. The Gray Jay (Perisoreus Canadensis) is found across Canada and Alaska, and is found in California only as far south as Lassen Volcanic National Park.

I'm trying to catch up with a summer's worth of bird pictures. This was late June during our journey through the Pacific Northwest. We were making our sole stop at Mt. Rainier National Park near Chinook Pass (everywhere else was still covered in snow), and this little bird I have never seen before showed up out of nowhere and was watching us carefully for any dropped food particles. It apparently has a reputation for being kind of obnoxious about securing food this way.

The Gray Jay survives in snow country better than most birds, in part because it can eat a wide variety of foods, and has a habit of storing food for the winter. It doesn't migrate out of region in winter, and actually nests in wintertime. Few other birds do that.

Seriously, this was the latter part of June! The passes had just opened up.