According to a Field Guide of the Birds of Utah {2004) there are six species of Jays in Utah. One of these is the Pinyon Jay.

On August 16, Kathleen Blanchard and I headed up Dairy Fork to do a little birding. ( Dairy Fork is south off of Highway 6 in Spanish Fork Canyon, just past the Sheep Creek turnoff). WOW, what a mess it had been the week or so before with lots or rain, there had been flooded roads with resulting piles of deadwood washed down both canyons.

Birding was slow. We only saw 16 species of birds in the five mile ride. On the way up we did see a Clark's Nutcracker! On the way back down we stopped because we could heard a loud ruckus made by a number of birds off to the east. We could see lots of birds noisily moving around through the junipers and other brush in the distance. We thought maybe they were Magpies, from the noise, but we could see they were not black and white, WAIT! The Merlin app confirmed that they were Pinyon Jays! What a find! There were probably 30 to 40 of them squawking and moving around.

Pinyon Jays are bluish-grey , noisy birds about ten and a half inches long that live in areas where there are Juniper bushes and Pinyon Pines. They eat the seeds of the pines, as well as insects and fruits. They live in flocks. A good place to see them used to be on the road that went south from Goshen, but I haven't seen them there in a long time. Another area is out beyond Elberta on the Elberta Slant Road. To me it seems that it's always a gamble whether you'll see them or not.

Last fall when the wild fires were burning in the south part of the county, I heard and saw a small flock of noisy birds flying east of my yard in Springville, (noisy, flock, right size). I'm pretty sure they were Pinyon Jays displaced by the fires. So, a new bird for my yard list! (I count birds seen in or from my yard.)
These birds are always fun to hear and see.