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Blue Jay

Status Common resident. Breeds. In summer it is found more commonly in wooded areas where it breeds, remote from human settlement. In fall and winter it is much more evident to man, having left its summer haunts in search of better feeding grounds--cornfields are particularly attractive to it. In winter it often comes to feeding stations, where it competes greedily with other birds. Although Blue Jays are generally considered nonmigratory, there is a definite trend southward at winter's approach that is more pronounced in some years than others, which explains why Blue Jays vary in local abundance from winter to winter.

Description Length: 28-31 cm. Adults: Head with conspicuous blue crest; back purplish blue; tail blue, barred with black, all but two central feathers broadly tipped with white; wings blue with bold white and black bars; belly grayish white; face and throat white; a narrow black collar passes around neck and over the breast.

Breeding Nest: A rough, fairly compact framework of twigs lined with fine rootlets, usually built in conifers but not infrequently in apple and other deciduous trees or in thick ornamental shrubbery. Eggs: 3-6, usually 4 or 5; showing considerable variation in size, the colour ranging from olive-green to brownish gray, thickly marked with distinct spots of various shades of cinnamon-brown. Nest construction usually begins during the second half of April and laying starts about 1 May. In spring 1950 a pair built a nest in a climbing rose within 50 cm of my window, affording an excellent opportunity to view its progress: the first twigs were placed early on 18 May; the first egg was laid on 22 May about 10 a.m. and thereafter one was laid daily through 25 May; the first egg hatched on the morning of 10 June, and all were hatched by 8 p.m. that evening; the first youngster left the nest on 30 June and by the morning of 1 July all had left and were seen about my garden that day; on 2 July and thereafter neither young nor adults were seen again.

Range Breeds from central Alberta to Newfoundland, south to Florida, the Gulf Coast and Texas. Winters throughout most of its breeding range.

Remarks Noisy and conspicuous most of the year, Blue Jays are quiet and secretive while nesting, behaving much like their cousins the GrayJays.

In addition to the familiar jay-jay-jay, they have a variety of calls, some most pleasing.

Bird-banding has shed light on the Blue Jay's life span. One was tagged and raised as a pet in June 1921; it was released repeatedly but always returned, and remained a pet until its death on 30 June 1936 at the age of 15 years. Another wild bird was captured and banded on 2 January 1922, and retaken on 17 November 1933, making it at least 12 years old.