Results for blue jay
On this page:
 
Dictionary:

blue jay


n.

A North American bird (Cyanocitta cristata) having a crested head, predominantly blue plumage, and a harsh, noisy cry.


 
 

Cyanocitta cristata

SUBFAMILY

Corvinae

TAXONOMY

Cyanocitta cristata Linnaeus, 1758, South Carolina. Four subspecies.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

French: Geai bleu; German: Blauhäher; Spanish: Chara azul.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

9.36–11.7 in (24–30 cm); 2.27–3.8 oz (65–109 g). Upperparts and jaunty crest are purplish blue. Wings and tail are brighter blue and have prominent black barring; wings also have white spots. Chin, face, throat and underparts are grayish white. Long bill, legs, and feet are black.

DISTRIBUTION

Eastern and central North America, with Rocky Mountains forming broad western limit.

HABITAT

Woodland, parks, and suburbs.

BEHAVIOR

Noisy and bold visitor to many backyards. Generally forages alone or in pairs.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Highly opportunistic feeder, supplementing a seed and nut diet with birds, mammals, invertebrates, and human garbage.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Solitary tree nester. Uses mud to hold its twig, root, and feather nest together. Generally lays four to five eggs late March through early June. Incubation 16–18 days; fledging 18–21 days. Frequently double brooded.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not threatened. Very common, with range expanding north-westward.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

Iconic status, with the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team, a record label, and a Beatles song all named after this bird.

 
common name for a familiar bird (Cyanocitta cristata) of central and E North America, allied to the crow, the raven, and the magpie, belonging to the family Corvidae. Almost a foot (30 cm) long, it is handsome and conspicuous. Its upper parts, including the crest, are grayish violet blue. The wings and tail are bright blue with black and white markings, the neck is collared with black, and the under parts are gray and white. Except during the nesting season it has a raucous cry with hawklike and other imitative sounds. Some winter in their northern range, but many travel south. They feed chiefly on large insects, seeds, and nuts (especially acorns and beechnuts); they also eat eggs and nestlings. When the female blue jay is incubating, she is fed by the male. Blue jays are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Passeriformes, family Corvidae.


 


Cyanocitta cristata 11-12½″ (28-31 cm). This showy, noisy, crested jay, widespread east of the Rockies (but expanding northwestward), is readily known from Steller's Jay by the white spots in wings and tail, the whitish or dull gray underparts, and the black necklace. Except for Steller's, other western jays lack crests. Has hybridized with Steller's Jay.

Voice: A harsh, slurring jeeah or jay; a musical queedle, queedle; also many other notes. Often mimics cry of Red-tailed Hawk.

Range: S. Canada, mainly east of Rockies to Gulf states.

Habitat: Oak and pine woods, suburban gardens, groves, towns.


 
Wikipedia: Blue Jay


Blue Jay
Cyanocitta-cristata-004.jpg
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Corvidae
Genus: Cyanocitta
Species: C. cristata
Binomial name
Cyanocitta cristata
Linnaeus, 1758
Blue_Jay-rangemap.gif

The Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) is a passerine bird and member of the crow family Corvidae native to North America. It is adaptable, aggressive and omnivorous.

Description

Enlarge

The Blue Jay measures about 30 cm from bill to tail and weighs 70–100 g (2.47-3.53 ounces), with a wingspan of 34–43 cm (13–17 in).[1] Its plumage is lavender-blue to mid-blue in the crest, back, wings, and tail, and its face is white. The underside is off-white and the neck is collared with black which extends to the sides of the head. The wing primaries and tail are strongly barred with black, sky-blue and white. [2] The bill, legs, and eyes are all black. Males and females are nearly identical; males are slightly larger.[3] There is a pronounced crest on the head, a crown of feathers, which may be raised or lowered according to the bird’s mood. When excited or aggressive, the crest may be fully raised. When frightened, the crest bristles outwards, brushlike. When the bird is feeding among other jays or resting, the crest is flattened to the head.[4]

As with other blue-hued birds, the Blue Jay's coloration is not derived by pigments, but is the result of light refraction due to the internal structure of the feathers; if a Blue Birdfeather is crushed, the blue disappears as the structure is destroyed. This is referred to as structural coloration.

Blue jays can be aggressive towards other birds, and are known to approach humans confidently.

Distribution and habitat

The Blue Jay occurs from southern Canada south to Texas and Florida. It breeds in mixed-wood forests, deciduous forests, parks, and residential areas from Canada in the north, through eastern North America, and south to Florida and northeastern Texas. The western edge of the range stops where the arid pine forest and scrub habitat of the closely related Steller's Jay begins. Recently, the range of the Blue Jay has extended to the Northwest so that it is now a regular but still-rare autumn migrant along the northern Pacific Coast.[1]

The Blue Jay is partially migratory. It may withdraw several hundred kilometres south in the northernmost parts of its range. It migrates during the daytime, in loose flocks of 5 to 250 birds.[2] The Blue Jay occupies a variety of habitats within its large range, from the pine woods of Florida to the spruce fir forests of northern Ontario. It is less abundant in the heavier forests, preferring mixed woodlands with oaks and beeches.[4]

Behaviour

The Blue Jay is generally aggressive toward other birds and it will chase birds from feeders or other food sources. It may chase birds of prey, such as hawks and owls, which occasionally prey on jays, and will scream if it sees a predator within its territory. It may also be aggressive towards humans who come close to its nest, and if an owl roosts near the nest during the daytime, the Blue Jay attacks it until it takes a new roost. The Blue jay is a slow flier and an easy prey for hawks and owls, when it flies in open lands. It flies with body and tail held level, with slow wing beats.[5]

The Blue Jay is known to be a raider of other bird's nests. It may steal eggs, chicks, and nests. It appropriates American Robin nests. Young jays collect brightly coloured or reflective objects, such as bottle caps or pieces of aluminium foil, and carry them for a moment.[5]

blue jay resting
Enlarge
blue jay resting

Blue Jays in captivity have been observed using strips of newspaper as tools to obtain food.[6]

Vocalization

The voice is typical of most jays in being varied, but the most commonly recognized sound is the alarm call, which is a loud, almost gull-like scream. There is also a high-pitched jayer-jayer call that increases in speed as the bird becomes more agitated. Blue Jays will use these calls to band together to drive a predator such as a hawk away from their nest.

Blue Jays also have quiet, almost subliminal calls which they use among themselves in proximity. One of the most distinctive calls of this type is often referred to as the "rusty pump" owing to its squeaky resemblance to the sound of an old hand-operated water pump. In fact, they can make a large variety of sounds, and individuals may vary perceptibly in their calling style. Like other corvids, blue jays may learn to mimic human speech. [1]

Diet

Its food is sought both on the ground and in trees and includes virtually all known types of plant and animal sources, such as acorns and beech mast, weed seeds, grain, fruits and other berries, peanuts, bread, meat, eggs and nestlings, small invertebrates of many types, scraps in town parks and bird-table food. Blue jays will also raid other birds' nests to attack their young.

Reproduction

The breeding season begins in mid-March, peaks in mid-April to May, and extends into July. Any suitable tree or large bush may be used for nesting, though an evergreen is preferred, and the nest is built at a height of 3 to 10 m.The adults build a cup-shaped nest of twigs, small roots, bark strips, moss, other plant material, cloth, paper, and feathers, with occasional mud added to the cup.[7]

Both sexes build the nest and rear the young, though only the female broods them. The male feeds the female while she is brooding the eggs. There are usually 4–5 eggs laid and incubated over 16–18 days. The young are fledged usually between 17–21 days. Blue Jays typically form monogamous pair bonds for life.[5] After the juveniles fledge, the family travels and forages together until early fall.[7]

References

Commons-logo.svg
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
  1. ^ a b Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata (English). Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved on 29 May, 2007.
  2. ^ a b Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata (English). USGS. Retrieved on June 18, 2007.
  3. ^ Frysinger, J.. Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata (English). Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved on June 18, 2007.
  4. ^ a b Robert W. Nero. Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata (English). Retrieved on 29 May, 2007.
  5. ^ a b c Blue Jay. Oiseaux.net. Retrieved on June 10, 2007.
  6. ^ Thony B. Jones and Alan C. Kamil. Tool-Making and Tool-Using in the Northern Blue Jay. Science, 8 June 1973: Vol. 180. no. 4090, pp. 1076–1078.
  7. ^ a b
  • BirdLife International (2004). Cyanocitta cristata. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 09 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
  • Goodwin, D. 1976. Crows of the World. Seattle, University of Washington Press.
  • Madge, S. and H. Burn. 1994. Crows and Jays: A Guide to the Crows, Jays and Magpies of the World. Boston, Houghton Mifflin.
  • Tarvin, K. A., and G. E. Woolfenden. 1999. Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata). In The Birds of North America. No. 469.

External links

Gallery

be-x-old:Блакітная сойка


 
Best of the Web: blue jay

Some good "blue jay" pages on the web:


Native American Mythology
www.pantheon.org
 
 
 

Join the WikiAnswers Q&A community. Post a question or answer questions about "blue jay" at WikiAnswers.

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Animal Encyclopedia. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Copyright © 2005 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Western Bird Guide. Peterson Field Guide to Western Birds, by Roger Tory Peterson. Copyright © 1990 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Blue Jay" Read more

Search for answers directly from your browser with the FREE Answers.com Toolbar!  
Click here to download now. 

Get Answers your way! Check out all our free tools and products.

On this page:   E-mail   print Print  Link  

 

Keep Reading

Mentioned In:

Related Topics