Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus
The pinyon jay is a species of jay, and is the only member of the genus Gymnorhinus. Native to Western North America, the species ranges from central Oregon to northern Baja California, and eastward as far as western Oklahoma, though wanderers are often sighted beyond this range. It is typically found within foothills, especially where pinyon pines occur.

David Menke · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- pinyon jayPBDB
- Sits inside
- GymnorhinusPBDB
- Diet
- omnivorePBDB, for Corvidae
- Life habit
- volantPBDB, for Corvidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Corvidae
- Mass
- 111 gWikidata
Time the record covers
At least 81 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 210 ka to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 1.4 Mya to 11.7 ka.
3 occurrences of Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
3 occurrences- Pleistocene100%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
151 taxa- Chondestes grammacus3 sites
- Corvus corax3 sites
- Eremophila alpestris3 sites
- Falco sparverius3 sites
- Phalaropus lobatus3 sites
- Zonotrichia3 sites
- Zonotrichia leucophrys3 sites
- Agelaius phoeniceus2 sites
- Anas crecca2 sites
- Arenaria interpres2 sites
- Asio flammeus2 sites
- Athene cunicularia2 sites
- Aves2 sites
- Brachyramphus marmoratus2 sites
- Calidris alba2 sites
- Catharus guttatus2 sites
- Catharus ustulatus2 sites
- Cepphus columba2 sites
- Cerorhinca monocerata2 sites
- Charadrius nivosus2 sites
- Charadrius vociferus2 sites
- Colaptes auratus2 sites
- Haemorhous mexicanus2 sites
- Haemorhous purpureus2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
2 references- Terminal Pleistocene–Holocene Avifauna of San Miguel and Santa Rosa Islands: Identifications of Previously Unidentified Avian Remains Recovered from Fossil Sites and Prehistoric Cave Deposits2
- The early and middle Pleistocene avifauna from Porcupine Cave1
Each of the 3 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content3
Picture of Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- David Menke
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
Photogrammetry
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Credit
- Moore Lab of Zoology
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus · MLZ:Bird:MLZ:Bird:50497
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Pinyon jay”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itGymnorhinus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Wied-Neuwied 1841)