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Blue Jays: Beautiful, Bumptious Bullies
Written By: William McReynolds | Issue: June 2024
Beautiful and bumptious, Blue Jays have no problem with self-expression.
Blue Jays are mixed blessings among the trees. Attired as if in bespoke plumage from the finest Saville Row tailor, their beauty is unsurpassed. Notice the jewels on the folded wings and long, wonderfully striped tail feathers. They sport a crest and stylish black neck scarf. Blue, a relatively rare color in the living world, is well deployed in this case.
These are large birds – bigger than most songbirds save the mighty crow – that make their presence in the forest known by all. They swoop in, sound off, dart about, take charge.
They can be bullies with smaller birds and will occasionally raid nests, break and consume eggs, even cannibalize hatchlings. That is a rare but an oft-mentioned species characteristic.
The last notwithstanding, they bring excitement to forest and field, enter the slumber of summer days like small blue fire engines. Their scientific name, Cyanocitta cristata, sounds like a line from a Latin Mass. That’s this bird.
Blue Jays are highly social within their flock. Family bonds are strong: they mate for life and care for offspring for months after they have left the nest. They have broad social relations with other Blue Jays.
Diet is seeds, nuts and acorns. They bury acorns for future consumption and in so doing plant oak trees across their wide range. A Blue Jay can carry acorns in a “gular pouch” in the throat and upper esophagus, and can transport as many as five in pouch, mouth and beak.
Blue Jays fitted with radio transmitters revealed that they each cache 3,000 to 5,000 acorns in the fall season. They are credited with spreading oak trees in our hemisphere since the last ice age.
Blue Jays build nests of twigs and bark 10 to 25 feet above the forest floor in deciduous and coniferous trees. He brings the building materials to her, and she does the actual construction. Two to seven spotted eggs are incubated for 17 or 18 days. Hatchlings fledge in another 17-21 days. Fledglings live the first weeks or more on the ground under the watchful care of both parents.
Happy June birding from the Highlands Plateau Audubon Society. Blue Jays are easy to spot, they electrify the woods. Watch for their busyness in the forest and watch them look at you as you look at them.
The Highlands Plateau Audubon Society, focused on enjoying and preserving birds and their habitats, is a Chapter of the National Audubon Society and a 501(c) (3) organization. For information on all our activities and membership, please visit highlandsaudubonsociety.org.
