Blue Jay
This week’s bird is the Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata), a common bird found throughout the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains. It is one of 129 species in 23 genera in the family Corvidae, Crows, Jays, and Magpies. It is large for a song bird, very gregarious, proudly announcing its presence with a raucous call. Alexander Wilson, one of North America’s first ornithologists and a contemporary of John James Audubon, wrote that the Blue Jay “is distinguished as a kind of beau among feathered tenants of our woods, by the brilliancy of his dress; and like most other coxcombs, makes himself still more conspicuous by his loquacity, and the oddness of his tones and gestures.”
Like other Corvids, the Blue Jay displays remarkable intelligence and adapts quickly to human activity. Interestingly, its intelligence has made it a difficult species to study. It quickly learns how to avoid such things as mist nets, making it hard to capture, band, and observe to gain insights into its behavior.
What it looks like
The Blue Jay is among the most commonly recognized species within its range. Its size, its various shades of blue with bold black and white markings, along with its distinct crest make it easily recognizable. It’s a common visitor to many backyard feeders, enjoying a peanut nugget, a sunflower seed, or a bite of suet. Both sexes look alike.
Breeding behavior
Blue Jays form long-term monogamous bonds. Mated individuals often nudge each other, pass twigs, and even “kiss” each other. The male often will bring food to the female, but does not provide all her food prior to incubation. Most pairs maintain this bond for several years, until one dies. One study of 28 pairs found that in only 2 cases (7%), the pair “divorced” when one member sought another mate while both members of the pair were still alive.
Both the male and female gather and construct the nest, although the male tends to do more of the gathering and female more of the constructing. Nest sites and locations are highly variable, including both deciduous and coniferous trees, and their height ranges from 1 to over 30 meters above ground. Nests can be bulky or compact, and include either live or dead twigs. Blue Jays also may incorporate human debris into nests, such as paper, tissue, cloth, string, plastic, and even magnetic tape from old cassette tapes or plastic from six-pack holders. This debris causes an unnecessary risk to birds, so please secure litter so it doesn’t find its way into a nest.
Blue Jays typically lay 4 eggs, ranging from 2 to 7, with only the female providing incubation duties. The male feeds the female during the 18-day incubation period. Once the eggs hatch, the female remains with the young on the nest for the first 8-12 days, while the male provides all of the food for both the babies and mother. During the last week before the young fledge, both parents bring food to the nest to feed young. The young fledge about three weeks after hatching. Pictured here is a newly fledged Blue Jay.
Diet and nest predation
The Blue Jay is an omnivorous bird, although it seems to prefer nuts at feeders as well as acorns. In addition, studies show that it is a major nest predator, taking eggs and young hatchlings from nearby nests. This seems to be especially true in areas with fragmented forests and lots of exposed edge habitat.
Vocalization
The Blue Jay is often recognized by its harsh call announcing its presence. It has the ability to produce two different sounds simultaneously via its syrinx (the bird’s voice box). It can also mimic environmental sounds – it does a great imitation of a Red-Tailed Hawk. Because of these factors, the total vocabulary of Blue Jays is immense and hard to categorize.
Conservation status
Despite the Blue Jay’s ability to adapt to humans, especially suburban habitat, its population has fallen by about 40 percent over the last half century. At the same time, increased forest fragmentation seems to indicate a rise in nest predation by Blue Jays that adversely affects the breeding success of other songbirds.
That’s it for this week.
Next week I’ll cover the Savannah Sparrow.
If you missed last week’s bird, you can read about the Tree Swallow by clicking here.