The story of the bird
The Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) dominates feeders from Alaska to Central America wherever there are conifers. It is named for Georg Wilhelm Steller, the German naturalist who encountered it on the Alaska coast in 1741 during Vitus Bering’s expedition - the same journey that killed both Steller and Bering within a year. The bird was described from a single specimen observed from the ship.
The head and upper breast are sooty black; the wings, belly and long crest are brilliant blue. Where the Blue Jay of the east is brash and vocal, the Steller’s Jay tends toward the theatrical, mimicking the Red-tailed Hawk’s cry convincingly enough to empty a feeder of smaller birds. It caches acorns and pine seeds through autumn and locates them through winter using spatial memory documented in experimental studies.
As wall art, the Steller’s Jay is the strong western blue, the cabin and mountain-home counterpart to the eastern Blue Jay. It reads as the conifer country of the West, a warm, always-right gift for a bird lover, a birder or anyone with a feeder in the pines. Rendered in a contemporary Audubon-inspired natural-history style with a soft paper-grain finish, on a warm cream ground that reads as paper rather than a white field.
Paper and finish
Unframed prints come on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308gsm, a heavyweight cotton rag with a soft matte surface and true archival life. The surface holds fine lines and subtle colour gradients without glare. The framed option is set in a classic moulding, glazed and ready to hang, in black, white or natural.
Sizes
Three sizes: 8x10, 16x20 and 24x30 inches, or a high-resolution digital download. Prints from $39. Framed from $99.
