"It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds." —Aesop, Fables: The Lay and the Peacock
Of all the birds that regularly visit backyard feeders, none is more easily recognized - or has a worse reputation - than the blue jay. Denounced as a raucous, lawless menace to all of the other avian visitors to our yards, the blue jay is often seen as an unwanted, predatory bully. John lames Audubon once stated, "It robs every nest it can find, sucks the eggs like a crow, or tears to pieces and devours the young birds." One of Audubon's paintings, in fact, depicts blue jays eating the eggs of another bird.
I have enjoyed watching blue jays for years in northern New Hampshire, and I have never observed blue jays behaving more aggressively than any other of the many species that regularly visit my feeders. A feeding hierarchy develops, but it appears to be based more on body size than innate aggressiveness. Of the common visitors that I usually see at my tray feeders, the mourning doves almost always get their way first, followed by the blue jays, grosbeaks, nuthatches, goldfinches, and chickadees. There seems to be an instinctive understanding among the species as to who has the ascendant position when feeding, and they all seem to know their place and take their turns, respectively.
The inevitable squabbles that do occasionally ensue are usually between rival individuals of the same species, but I do not observe blue jays to be any more inclined toward this intra-species aggression than chickadees are. Even more remarkable, however, I have at times witnessed pairs of blue jays passing seeds to one another, even in winter, when nesting is still tar off. Since blue jays typically mate for life, I can only suppose that this behavior is a naturally occurring interaction that serves to reinforce the bond between a mated pair throughout the year.
If they were not so common, blue jays - with their unique color and markings - would almost certainly be considered among the most beautifully adorned birds. With at least four shades of blue making up their plumage, several contrasting shades of white and gray, and the notable crest on its head that rises up when the bird is excited, the blue jay has a venerable look of poise and distinction. Interestingly, those four shades of blue that we see are an illusion created by the complex structure of cells within the blue jay's feathers. The scattering of blue wavelengths creates the impression that the blue jay is blue. Without the scattered light, however, the blue feathers would appear brown. This phenomenon is called structural color (as opposed to color that is based on pigments) and is also the reason we see the sky and blue eyes as blue.
For some reason, no pigments exist in nature that are designed to make the features of birds blue. This applies as well to the indigo bunting, the blue grosbeak, and the bluebirds - all of these birds use structural color to create their own display of beautiful blues. Next time you find a blue feather, hold it up so that it is between you and the light source. By eliminating incoming light to reflect off of it, the blue disappears and the feather's natural brown coloration can be seen.
Still, even the blue jay's scientific name - Cyanocitta cristata - refers to its blueness. The genus comes from cyanos, the Greek word for blue; the species name is the Latin cristata, meaning "crested." Jays are members of the Corvidae family, which also includes crows, ravens, magpies, and several other species of jay and is considered by many to be the most intelligent family of birds, because of these birds' capacity to solve problems. Perhaps that was why researchers at the University of Nebraska chose blue jays to use in a recent study on moth evolution.
The experiment was designed to simulate a natural selection process in which moths with easily recognizable wing patterns would be systematically eliminated before they had a chance to reproduce, which would presumably result in the evolution of successively more camouflaged individuals. Four blue jays were taught to find tiny virtual moths on a gray computer screen; each blue jay was trained to search for moths in a sequence of more than 400 images on the screen. When a moth was found and pecked on the screen, the blue jays received a pellet of food, and the virtual moth was removed from the digital gene pool. After about 30 generations in the experiment, the moths were so well camouflaged that the researchers themselves could not locate them on the gray gravel screen. The blue jays, however, were about 80 percent accurate throughout the entire trial, apparently utilizing an extremely successful predatory strategy- in which they are able to focus on just one subtle but very specific feature of their prey at a time - a technique that is apparently beyond the sensory range of our own visual acuity.
Another skill that shows the intelligence of these birds is their ability to mimic the sounds of other birds, especially hawks, presumably for the purpose of scaring off other birds, and perhaps even squirrels, with whom they compete for food. Some experts contend that the blue jay is second only to the mockingbird in all of North America in its ability to master the sounds of other birds. Its repertoire of vocalizations goes far beyond the grating jay, jay, jay sound that we usually associate with this bird. There is also bell-like tull-ull call, a melodious-sounding whistle, a variety of chattering, harsh notes, and a very distinctive "squeaky wheel" type of sound. Little is known of what function each sound serves - territorial proclamations, mate attraction, or perhaps much more subtle functions such as identity - recognition, or sounds that may help to stimulate nest-building activity - but it is certain that complex vibrations are a learned and well-developed feature of the blue jay in particular. It has been found that song repertoire tends to increase with age, and blue jays live relatively long lives. One banded blue jay was found to have lived 171/2 years, and the expected life span of about 10 years is ample time to acquire much "blue jay wisdom."
Blue Jay Ecology
An often-overlooked aspect of blue jays is the important role they play in the forest. Like squirrels, blue jays often will bury more seeds and nuts for winter than they will ever return to retrieve. This behavior provides a tremendous boost to the propagation of trees that provide such important forest f(X)d sources as beech nuts and acorns, which in turn serve a whole host of living creatures, from deer to mice and ultimately to the larger forest predators. Millions of years of evolution have established this elemental role for the blue jay, which should not be overshadowed by our perception of these birds as opportunistic killers of cute little nestlings. In truth, blue jays get only a small amount of their food from nest predation.
In an extensive study conducted and published back in 1897 by F. E. L. Beal, in which 297 stomachs of blue jays were collected from 22 states and Canada, it was determined that only five of them contained eggshells or parts of birds. Beal summarized his findings thus: "The most striking point in the study of the food of the blue jay is the discrepancy between the testimony of field observers concerning the bird's nest-robbing proclivities and the results of stomach examinations. The accusations of eating eggs and young birds are certainly not sustained, and it is futile to attempt to reconcile the conflicting statements on this point."
During non-nesting seasons, the blue jay relies exclusively on either vegetarian sources of food or a mixture that includes insects such as grasshoppers, caterpillars, and beetles. Very occasionally, they consume small vertebrates such as frogs, salamanders, or even mice. Their omnivorous diet no doubt has contributed to their widespread range, which covers nearly the entire region east of the Rocky Mountains from Canada to Florida, in habitats as varied as urban, suburban, wooded, open meadow, and mountainous. lately, the blue jay has been seen more regularly in states as far west as Utah and Idaho.
The bird species that have fared best in today's tumultuous times of radical habitat loss and diversity reduction tend to be generalists capable of existing in habitats that have been extensively altered by human populations. Blue jays epitomize those qualities. They continue to endure as free and independent spirits of wildness, delicately interwoven within the complexity of the natural order, and yet they also are capable of exploiting any new niche or advantage that might present itself in a rapidly changing world. To counter the conventional notion of the blue jay as an obnoxious menace, perhaps it would be more fitting to admire it for its keen intelligence, respect it for its continued ability to thrive in a changing landscape, value it for its contribution to the community of life, and always just welcome it for its exquisite beauty.
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