The Pinyon Jay has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because of extensive conversion of pinyon-juniper habitat to grazing land. (Photo via Getty Images)
Environmentalists are now threatening to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) after significant bureaucratic delays in determining whether the Pinyon Jay deserves increased habitat protections.
Here in New Mexico, the Pinyon Jay plays a vital ecological and cultural role for the state’s official tree: the Piñon Pine .
Bryan Bird focuses on species conservation with the ecological organization Defenders of Wildlife , which plans to sue FWS. He said the Pinyon Jay is a pillar in New Mexico’s aging piñon-juniper forests.
“The Pinyon Jay is a little bit like a canary in a coal mine for our delicate Southwestern environments,” Bird said.
As it turns out, Pinyon Jays are intimately connected to the trees’ survival – dispersing their seeds and surprisingly, creating habitat for other birds such as the Western Bluebird.