Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus

This species has declined by approximately 85% since the 1960s and the current population is projected to continue to decline by another 50% by 2035. It is threatened by habitat loss and habitat degradation due to climate change, and due to the removal of pinyon and juniper trees as a land management practice.

This species is endemic to western North America where it is a year-round resident. The range extends from the United States in Oregon, east to southern Montana, south to within 250 km of the U.S.-México border in New Mexico and Arizona, west to eastern California, and only reaching into México in Baja California Norte (Johnson and Balda 2020, Fink et al. 2023, eBird 2024). Using records from Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF 2024) from 2004 onward (i.e. the past 20 years) and removing records of vagrancy outside the established breeding range (e.g. southern Canada, central Kansas, Chihuahua), GeoCat (2024) calculated range extent to be 2.86 million km².

It is distributed among foothills and lower mountain slopes within the range. In the United States, it is found in east-central Montana, much of Wyoming, western South Dakota, Colorado, the Davis Mountains of western Texas, northern and central New Mexico, northern and central Arizona, nearly all of Utah and Nevada, southern Idaho, eastern California, and central Oregon (Johnson and Balda 2020, Fink et al. 2023, eBird 2024). In México, breeding populations are restricted to the Sierra de Juárez and Sierra San Pedro Mártir mountain ranges in Baja California Norte (Johnson and Balda 2020, Fink et al. 2023, eBird 2024).

There are undoubtedly many occurrences, however estimating the number of occurrences is challenging. The home-range size of a single flock or colony is usually several kilometers wide, they can be seasonally nomadic, and each flock is likely part of a larger metapopulation structure (Johnson and Balda 2020, Johnson and Sadoti 2023).

Climate change is causing habitat degradation and loss in the form of tree mortality, reduced cone production, and an increasing frequency and severity of wildfires (Gaylord et al. 2013, Meddens et al. 2015, Johnson and Balda 2020, Johnson and Sadoti 2023, Stillman et al. 2025). While pinyon-juniper habitat is increasing in some areas, habitat loss is an ongoing threat (Johnson and Balda 2020, Johnson and Sadoti 2023, Reinhardt et al. 2023, Van Lanen et al. 2023). Habitat loss is now occurring at a much-reduced pace compared to historical levels (Johnson and Balda 2020). The destructive practices of “chaining” and other methods of pinyon and juniper tree removal continue to be used as misguided land management practices by federal and state agencies for fuels reduction and conservation of sagebrush habitat (Johnson and Balda 2020, Johnson and Sadoti 2023, Reinhardt et al. 2023, Van Lanen et al. 2023). The development and production of oil, gas, and wind energy are extensive in some parts of the range, and the roads and oil pads associated with this development can fragment nesting colony habitat (Johnson and Balda 2020). This habitat fragmentation limits the amount of suitable foraging habitat for this species (Sicich et al. 2025). Under continuing threats, this species is projected to decline by 50% by 2035 (Rosenberg et al. 2016). Trade of this species in the pet trade in the European Union appears to be quite small and not currently considered a threat to this species (Shepherd et al. 2024).