Tuesday 22 April 2025: Grouse Lek Extravaganza with She Flew Birding Tours.
Day 4: Colorado National Monument, Coal Canyon, to Craig
Since leaving Denver we’ve driven through some amazing scenery on our way to Gunnison, Colorado on Sunday night and Grand Junction on Monday. We crossed Monarch Pass, were awed by the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and have passed through mountains, basins and valleys. Today we’ll spend part of our time in pinyon-juniper woodlands, nicknamed “PJ.”
Pinyon-juniper woodland dominates the slopes above the sagebrush and below the ponderosa pines in southern and western Colorado (quote from Colorado Birding Trail). To those of us from Pennsylvania this PJ woodland scene at Dominiguez-Escalante suggests an old field reverting to forest. Nope.
According to the Colorado State Forest Service, the most common PJ tree species are the Colorado piñon pine, the Utah juniper and the New Mexico or one-seed juniper (Juniperus monosperma) that thrive in drought-prone, cold areas where annual precipitation is 10-15 inches. The trees cope with these challenges by growing widely spaced and rarely exceeding 10 feet tall.
Colorado piñon pine (Pinus edulis) [or pinyon pine]
Pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) have such a symbiotic relationship with pinyon pines that these woodlands are really the only place to find them. Unfortunately the jay is declining dangerously and its disappearance could cause the pine to decline as well. In 2023 USFWS began a study to decide whether to list the pinyon jay as Endangered, described in the video below. As of this writing the jay’s status has not changed.
Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma)
Though juniper titmice (Baeolophus ridgwayi) have “juniper” in their name they do not have the close relationship with junipers that the pinyon jay has with pines. This bird used to be the plain titmouse (he is definitely plain!) but was named for his preferred habitat when he was split from the oak titmouse in the 1990s. His “oak” cousin is well studied but he is not.
In addition to a “pinyon” and “juniper” species, the Colorado Birding Trail: Pinyon-Juniper Woodland lists the birds that make the area home for at least part of the year:
Bird species that breed almost exclusively in or near pinyon-juniper in Colorado include Black-chinned Hummingbird, Cassin’s Kingbird, Gray Flycatcher, Gray Vireo, Pinyon Jay, Bewick’s Wren, Juniper Titmouse, Bushtit, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Black-throated Sparrow, and the rare but spectacular Scott’s Oriole. In addition, this habitat may host Common Poorwill, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Plumbeous Vireo, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay. In winter it can be crawling with mixed-species flocks of thrushes, including American Robin, bluebirds, and Townsend’s Solitaire.
— Colorado Birding Trail: Pinyon-Juniper Woodland
But we’d have to stay throughout the year to see them all.