Unique Species Are to Be Found on the Channel Islands
Few non-birders are aware that just off our coast, on Santa Cruz Island in the Channel Island National Park, is a bird species found nowhere else on earth. It’s the island scrub jay, and it has the smallest range of any North American bird species. The island jay is most closely related to our familiar California scrub jay, and at a cursory glance, you might not be able to tell the difference. However, the island dweller’s measurements are 15 percent larger and the weight 40 percent greater, the blues of the plumage are much deeper, it has blue feathering under the tail that the mainland bird lacks, and the bill is proportionally larger. The voice is also different, the island bird’s calls being lower-pitched and quieter than those of its noisy mainland cousins. Genetic analysis shows that the island jays diverged from the California scrub jay about 150,000 years ago.
Santa Barbara Birding: The Galapagos of the North - The Santa Barbara Independent
Few non-birders are aware that just off our coast, on Santa Cruz Island in the Channel Island National Park, is a bird species found nowhere else on earth. It’s the island scrub jay, and it has the smallest range of any North American bird species. The island jay is most closely related to our familiar California scrub jay, and at a cursory glance, you might not be able to tell the difference. However, the island dweller’s measurements are 15 percent larger and the weight 40 percent greater, the blues of the plumage are much deeper, it has blue feathering under the tail that the mainland bird lacks, and the bill is proportionally larger. The voice is also different, the island bird’s calls being lower-pitched and quieter than those of its noisy mainland cousins. Genetic analysis shows that the island jays diverged from the California scrub jay about 150,000 years ago.
Santa Barbara Birding: The Galapagos of the North - The Santa Barbara Independent