The Blue Jay Is One Of The Most Beautiful And Intelligent Birds In The World, In Pictures

The blue jay is considered one of the most beautiful and intelligent birds in North America. This large, common bird is familiar to many people and can be easily recognized by its elegant feathery crest, with blue, white and black feathers, and its loud voice. The blue jay is famous for its love of acorns. It is a talkative bird, and is known for its wonderful imitation of many animals, but did you know that the blue jay is not blue? Did you know that it belongs to the corvidae family? With us, you will learn a lot of amazing information and facts about the blue jay, the most beautiful bird in the world.

Description of the blue jay

Male and female blue jays have similar colors. The bird has black eyes, legs, and beak. The blue jay has a white face with a blue top of the head and also the back, wings, and tail. It also has a U-shaped collar of black feathers around the neck. To the sides of the head, the wing and tail feathers are striped in black, light blue, and white, as is the case with the peacock. The blue jay’s feathers are actually brown, but they appear blue due to light interference depending on the structure of the feathers. If the feathers are crushed, the blue color disappears. Adult males Slightly larger than female jays on average, blue jays are considered medium-sized, reaching 9 inches in length and weighing between 70.8-100 grams.

Home and habitat of the blue jay

The blue jay lives from southern Canada to Florida and northern Texas. It has been found from the east-west coast to the Rocky Mountains, and in the western part of its range. The blue jay is sometimes hybridized with the Steller’s jay, and it prefers The blue jay is native to forests, but is highly adaptable. In deforested areas, the bird continues to thrive in residential areas. It also prefers coniferous forests. Typically, the blue jay is found in lowland forest areas. This bird likes to live in trees. Beech and Oak, it can be found regularly in city parks and is easily recognized because it is one of the most colorful and loudest birds.

The blue jay’s diet

is an omnivorous bird, and it will eat small invertebrates, pet foods, meat, and sometimes eat bird chicks and eggs. The blue jay usually uses its strong beak to crack acorns and other nuts. It also eats seeds, berries, and grains. About 75% of their diet consists of plant materials. Sometimes the blue jay hides its food. Its diet also includes beetles, grasshoppers, and caterpillars. Besides, these birds are also known to eat eggs and chicks. This makes them a predatory animal.

Behavior of the Blue Jay

Like crows and other members of the family, the blue jay is considered highly intelligent. A captive blue jay can use tools to obtain food and work mechanisms to open its cage. The blue jay raises and lowers the feathery crown on top of its head as a form of Forms of non-verbal communication. It speaks using a wide range of sounds and can mimic the sounds of hawks and other birds. Blue jays may mimic hawks to warn of the presence of predators or to deceive other species, and drive them away from food or nest. Some blue jays migrate, but how Deciding when to move south in winter is not yet understood.

Blue jay reproduction

The blue jay is a monogamous bird, and both males and females build the nest and raise the young together. The birds usually mate between mid-April and July and produce one set of eggs annually. The blue jay builds a cup-shaped nest of twigs, feathers, and materials. Plants and sometimes mud near human habitation may include pieces of cloth, thread, and paper. The female lays between 3 and 6 gray or brown eggs.

The eggs may be orange, pale green, or blue, and both parents may incubate the eggs, but mainly the female incubates the eggs while the male brings her food. The eggs hatch after about 16 to 18 days, and both parents feed the young until they rely on themselves to fly, which happens between… 17 and 21 days after hatching. A captive blue jay may live for 26 years, and in the wild it usually lives about 7 years.

Is the blue jay in danger of extinction?

The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the blue jay as Least Concern. While deforestation in eastern North America has temporarily reduced the species’ population, the blue jay has adapted to urban habitats, and its population has remained stable over the past 40 years. It is known that There are about 13 million blue jays in the world. However, blue jay numbers have declined by about 28% between the 1960s and 2015. About 87% of blue jays are known to live in the United States while 13% live in Canada. Migratory habits Blue jays bring it up and down the Atlantic coast (along with the Great Lakes), but little is known about where it goes.

Fascinating facts about the blue jay

1- The blue jay is related to crows:

It is sometimes difficult to imagine that crows belong to the same family as the blue jay, but this is true, and these two types of birds belong to the crow family, as they shared a common ancestor at some point in history, and while their colors Not all alike, their similarities mostly lie in their strong beaks, long tails, and intelligence.

2- The blue jay does not have consistent migration patterns:

This is perhaps one of the most interesting facts about the blue jay. During its range, some populations only migrate south during the winter, while others generally remain in its breeding areas throughout the year, and studies have shown that Younger blue jays are more likely to migrate than older ones, and it has been observed that if a bird migrates south in a given year, it may not migrate again the following year.

3- The blue jay is monogamous:

The blue jay generally stays with its mate throughout its life. During the breeding season, both the male and female collect nest materials and build it. The female is primarily responsible for hatching the eggs. During incubation, the males tend to the females and feed them, and remain The couple mates with their chicks for 2-3 weeks before leaving the nest site.

4- The blue jay has a complex social system:

Blue jays live in small family groups, and if they migrate, the entire group travels with them, and although there is no understood consistency in the frequency of their migrations, these birds generally spend their lives with these groups, and they do not Pairs never separate and sometimes their young also join their group. It has also been observed that blue jays condition brooding chicks by refusing to feed them outside the nest.

5- The blue jay is an expert in imitation:

The most amazing part about these birds is their voice. The blue jay can imitate anything it encounters, and these birds often later alert other birds of predators by imitating the cries of hawks before they arrive. It has also been observed They meow like cats at times, which can disperse other bird species away from common foraging areas. Blue jays raised in captivity have also been observed to incredibly imitate human speech.

6- The blue jay can use tools:

One of the distinctive features of its intelligence is its ability to use tools, and although the blue jay does not use them much, it has been observed that birds in captivity use pieces of newspaper and sticks to bring their food closer to them, and they can also engage in behavior Opportunistic, farmers often wait to finish planting their seeds before flying and eating them.

7- The blue jay is very talkative:

The blue jay constantly communicates with each other, and this is evident from the great diversity and frequency with which it speaks to each other. While the majority of its sounds have not yet been decoded, great diversity has been observed, and this indicates that it is capable To communicate much more than simple messages to each other.

8- Blue jays generally have a longer lifespan than other birds:

The oldest recorded blue jay was reportedly 26 years and 11 months at the time of his death. In contrast, most other species of wild jays live for 7-20 years.

9- The blue jay is not the fastest bird and tends to store food for later:

The blue jay only flies at a speed of 20-25 miles per hour, and tends to take slower, more relaxed steps while in the air, and this combined with its tendency to store nuts for the future It gives it little incentive to travel in search of food, and it is very adept at identifying high-quality acorns and can fly with up to 5 of them at a time. It has been found that a blue jay may store between 3,000 and 5,000 acorns during a single fall.

10- The blue jay is not blue:

This may come as a surprise, but scientifically, the blue jay is not blue, and the chemical compound responsible for its colors is a pigment called melanin. Melanin is brown in color but is spread throughout the body in different amounts. As a result, when Light hitting the bird is scattered and gives off different shades of blue.

Frequently asked questions about the blue jay

Q: Are blue jays aggressive?
A: Yes, the blue jay is known to be aggressive and is not shy about attacking any intruder or predator. However, it is also a social creature that is mostly found in groups.

Q: What does a blue jay sound like?
A: Blue jays make a variety of sounds to communicate, however, they are known for their jay-jay calls. In addition, they whistle, chatter, and growl to communicate.

Q: What does the blue jay symbolize?
A: The blue jay is known to symbolize clarity, intellect and vitality.

Q: Is the blue jay a carnivore, herbivore, or a carnivore?
A: The blue jay is an omnivore and feeds on nuts, acorns and seeds. However, in some cases, it also eats locusts, caterpillars and beetles. Therefore, it is an omnivore and an omnivore.

Q: Is the blue jay a migratory bird?
A: Some groups of blue jays are known to be migratory, however, their destination remains unknown.

Q: Are blue jays intelligent?
A: The blue jay is known to be part of the corvid family and is very intelligent, just like its crow cousins, the blue jay is one of the smartest birds you will see.

Q: What attracts blue jays?
A: Nuts are a particular favorite of blue jays, including peanuts offered whole or already shelled. Suet, mealworms, cracked corn, and sunflower seeds are other great options to attract blue jays, as are natural food sources such as small fruits, raspberries, cherries, blueberries, and raspberries. Black and so on