This week in the woods, for our last post of 2023, we’re celebrating one of our most common and beautiful bird species: the blue jay. These brazen, intelligent birds – members of the brainy corvid family, which also includes ravens and crows – have a bad reputation, in part because of their tendency to dominate birdfeeders. However, as Lee Emmons notes in this Outside Story essay, blue jays also have their admirable qualities, including a special role in tree migration. As a species that carries and buries acorns and other nuts miles away from parent trees, blue jays accelerate the return of trees to deforested landscapes, and they likely played an important role in the arrival of oaks and other tree species to the Northeast following the past ice age.
We’ll be taking next week off from this series; in the meantime, happy winter solstice, holidays, and 2024!
What have you noticed in the woods this week? Submit a recent photo for possible inclusion in our monthly online Reader Photo Gallery.