ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – It’s hard to celebrate the holidays in New Mexico without a little piñon.

“It’s what you do every year. You get together from wherever it is you live, and you go piñon picking,” said Debora Jolley, an Albuquerque resident. 

“Or you can go buy them if you want to, but I’d rather go find them for free,” said Les Jolley, another Albuquerque resident. 

You can find those piñon nuts anywhere there’s piñon pine trees. That’s almost any forest in New Mexico, and if you’re lucky you’ll also find the pinyon jay.

“They are the primary disperser and planter of pinon pine seeds. So without pinyon jays, we don’t have piñon pines,” said Pegg Darr, a New Mexico representative of Defenders of Wildlife.  

Representatives with nonprofit group Defenders of Wildlife say the research is clear, pinyon jays are flying towards extinction.

“They face a lot of threats, including climate change and habitat mismanagement,” said Darr. “By some estimates, their population has declined by up to 84% since the 1960s.” 

Some researchers believe the current population could drop by another 50% in the next ten years. A startling decline, folks noticed.

“We used to see them down here, right? We hardly ever see any more pinyon jays in this area anymore,” Les said. 

Fewer pinyon jays means fewer piñon nuts.

“The Southwest could change very drastically, and we could no longer be known for our wonderful piñon cuisine,” said Darr. 

The fight to save the blue birds is struggling to take off. Defenders of Wildfire petitioned he U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to officially list the pinyon jay as an endangered species in April 2022.

The agency had 90-days to respond, and it finally did in August 2023, agreeing the pinyon jay needs extra protections.

“The next step should have been the 12-month finding, which, as the name implies, would be within 12 months of the petition. That didn’t happen. It hasn’t happened yet,” said Lisa Salezburg, a senior attorney with Defenders of Wildlife.

Defenders of Wildlife reportedly obtained internal documents revealing the agency doesn’t plan to address pinyon jays until 2028.

So the nonprofit is now suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, hoping a judge will force them to pick up the pace.

“The longer you wait to address an endangered species situation, it’s going to make it that much harder and more expensive for taxpayers to recover the species, and to make sure that the pinyon jay continues to do its part in perpetuating our piñon pines,” said Darr.

And of course, those popular piñon nuts.