Beautifully colored and with a strident call,
blue jays are common in backyards and forests of much of North America. This
common, large songbird is familiar to a lot of people, with its lovely perky
crest; blue, white, and black plumage; and noisy calls. Blue Jays are
well-known for their intelligence and complex social systems with tight family
bonds. Their keenness for acorns is credited with assisting spread oak trees
after the last glacial period. Generally blue jays are natural forest dwellers,
but they’re also highly adaptable and intelligent birds.
They’re acquainted and noisy presence around many
North American bird feeders. The blue jay's "Jay! Jay!" call is only
one of a wide variety of sounds the bird employs including outstanding
imitations of several hawk calls. Therefore the oldest known wild, banded Blue
Jay lived to be at least 17 years 6 months old. Blue Jays usually communicate
with one another both vocally and with “body language,” using their crest.
Blue jays are sometimes famous to eat eggs or
nestlings, and it is this practice that has discolored their reputation.
However they’re largely vegetarian birds. Their diet mainly consists of acorns,
nuts, grains, and seeds though they also eat small creatures such as
caterpillars, grasshoppers, and beetles. Blue jays sometimes store acorns in
the ground and may fail to retrieve them, thus aiding the spread of forests.
Blue Jay is common in much of eastern and central North America; blue jays are
slowly extending their range to the Northwest. They’re fairly social and are
usually found in pairs or in family groups or small flocks.
Most northern birds head south for the winter and
join in large flocks of up to 250 birds to make the long journey. However, this
migration is a bit of a mystery to scientists. Some bird’s winter in all parts
of the blue jay's range and some individual birds may migrate one year and not
the next. It is imprecise what factors determine whether each blue jay or
family decides to migrate. Blue Jays lower their crests when they’re feeding
quietly with family and flock members or tending to nestlings. The higher the
crest, the higher the bird’s aggression level and when a Blue Jay squawks, the
crest is nearly always held up.