West · Central Flyway
Jays in Colorado
Jays in Colorado come down to 5 species with regular eBird records, led by the Blue Jay. Together they account for 506,506 of the 16 million eBird records from 2020–2024 — 3.1% of everything reported in the state.
The full list: Blue Jay, Steller's Jay, Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay, Canada Jay and Pinyon Jay. Jays are the loud, intelligent, boldly colored members of the crow family. The Blue Jay dominates the East; the West has its own set — scrub-jays, Steller's Jay, Pinyon Jay, and the Canada Jay of the high forests — and the two sides overlap only along the Rockies.
Jays in Colorado: every species, most-reported first
Every jay with at least 25 eBird records in the state from 2020–2024, most-reported first. The status label is derived from each species’ own monthly share of all state records.
1. Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) — 269,022 records, 1.7% of the state’s eBird total; a year-round resident, reported in every month.
2. Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) — 118,660 records, 0.7% of the state’s eBird total; a year-round resident, reported in every month.
3. Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma woodhouseii) — 93,392 records, 0.6% of the state’s eBird total; a year-round resident, reported in every month.
4. Canada Jay (Perisoreus canadensis) — 13,987 records, 0.09% of the state’s eBird total; a summer visitor, present mainly from January to October and peaking in August.
5. Pinyon Jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) — 11,445 records, 0.07% of the state’s eBird total; a year-round resident, reported in every month.
When to see jays in Colorado
Adding up every species’ share of state eBird records month by month, jays are most prominent in October, September and November and least in May and April. 4 of the 5 species are year-round — Blue Jay, Steller's Jay, Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay and Pinyon Jay — so there is no month without them.
Summer visitors. Canada Jay arrives around January and is mostly gone after October (peak August).
Attracting jays to Colorado backyards
Peanuts in the shell are the classic jay food; whole corn and sunflower work too. Jays cache what they cannot eat, so a platform feeder will empty faster than you expect.
In Colorado the jay most likely to turn up is the Blue Jay, a year-round resident, followed by the Steller's Jay. Its own page covers month-by-month activity and attraction tips for this state.
Jays in Colorado: FAQ
How many species of jays are there in Colorado?
5 species of jays have regular eBird records in Colorado (at least 25 records in 2020–2024): Blue Jay, Steller's Jay, Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay, Canada Jay and Pinyon Jay.
What is the most common jay in Colorado?
The Blue Jay, with 269,022 eBird records in 2020–2024, followed by the Steller's Jay with 118,660. It is a year-round resident, reported in every month.
When is the best time to see jays in Colorado?
October, September and November, when the combined share of Colorado eBird records belonging to jays is highest. Summer visitors such as the Canada Jay arrive around January.
More birds in Colorado
Jays in other states
Jays in Colorado: sources
Every number on this page comes from the EOD – eBird Observation Dataset published by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and distributed through GBIF under a CC BY 4.0 license: Colorado records from 2020–2024, retrieved 2026-09-18. Species are drawn from the families Corvidae; only species with at least 25 records are listed, and a species is called a year-round resident when its monthly share of state records stays above 30% of its own peak in ten or more months. “Records” are individual eBird observations, so they reflect how often birders report a species, not a population count.