Christina Selby is a conservation photographer, science writer, and naturalist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico who uses the power of visual and narrative storytelling to enchant people's hearts and inspire action on behalf of nature.

The Piñon Country project began during the pandemic as an desire to get to know the birds and animals in the landscape around my home in Santa Fe where I live surrounded by piñon-juniper trees and grasslands. After almost two decades of living on the quiet edge of town, large new housing developments were sprouting up all around me to meet the increasing demand in Santa Fe. The piñon and juniper savannah were being replaced by tall apartment buildings, concrete, and non-native urban trees. I wondered what would become of my wild neighbors: the coyotes, prairie dogs, ravens, and other birds.

On a chilly February day, I set out with my camera to explore a small patch of public land near my home. Walking through a fresh layer of snow, I encountered a small flock of Pinyon Jays foraging under a lone piñon tree junipers. I attempted to hide in a cluster of trees to watch them when a single Pinyon Jay landed on the branch above me and started calling out my presence to its flock. Sitting within touching distance, the jay looked directly into my eyes from above as if to say: you are fooling no one. I was immediately enamored with their charisma, intelligence, funny strut as they searched for food on the ground, and unique social calls and chatter between the group.

Upon returning home, I researched the jays further and learned of their intimate relationship with piñon pines and their rapidly declining numbers. Having never recognized the presence of Pinyon Jays before this experience, I began getting glimpses of them: visiting the tall cottonwood outside my office, flying over as I hiked among piñon pines, as if to say, here we are, when will you tell our story? Listening to the signals that nature was sending me, I began spending more time exploring the piñon-juniper woodland in New Mexico and beyond. I reached out to environmental groups and scientists to understand the conservation concerns about the Pinyon Jays and spent time in the field learning about the decades long history of research to understand the lives of Pinyon Jays.

I traveled to central New Mexico to see the impact of new wind farms on the piñon-juniper landscape. I stopped at a old, run-down gas station where on a graffitied wall a jay was painted. As I contemplated the art, a truck carrying carrying the wing of a wind turbine passed on one side while a train hauling containers of oil and gas sped by on the other. I knew that without awareness of their presence and importance to the piñon-juniper landscape and proper siting, those energy developments could destroy the nesting colony of Pinyon Jays and contribute to their decline. I decided then that I would take on telling their story and the story of their habitat so we could make better decisions and learn to co-exist with these amazing, intelligent, social birds.

Collaborating with environmental groups and scientists, I set out to document the lives of Pinyon Jays, understand the ecosystem they play a key role in, and raise the awareness and value of Piñon Country in the west and my place in this community. Little did I know that initial encounter with Pinyon Jays was a rare moment and due to their nomadic nature, moving across large territories, they wouldn’t be so easy to find again. After two years of working on this project, I feel I’ve only scratched the surface of sharing the essence of this place and the lives of Pinyon Jays. My search for Pinyon Jays has since taken me all across the Southwest and the wall-of-green, which is how I used to experience the piñon-juniper landscape, has become a rich, diverse habitat full of life, wonder, enchantment and story. It is an journey I will continue for a long while to come. I now feel privileged to count my self as a member of Piñon Country and I invite you to join me on this journey.

Christina is the author of two nature guidebooks and producer of the documentary film Saving Beauty. Her editorial photographs and writing have appeared in Audubon Magazine, bioGraphic, Scientific American, National Geographic online, Outdoor Photographer, New Mexico Magazine, The Open Notebook, and Mongabay. Using conventional photographic techniques along with camera traps, timelapse, and drones, she works closely with field biologists to both effectively and ethically photograph some of the most imperiled species and ecosystems on the planet while also highlighting the threats they face and the conservation efforts on their behalf. Christina has a bachelor’s in Ecology & Evolution and a master’s in Environment & Community. She is an award-winning photographer, and member of Her Wild Vision, League of Conservation Writers, and the International League of Conservation Photographers.