Blue jay (blue): family, habitats, breeding, life cycle and description with photo

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:45

Jays are a fairly common species of birds. To date, there are forty-four species of these birds. All of them belong to the Crow family, the order of passeriformes. It is likely that somewhere else there are species of these birds unknown to ornithologists.

The blue jay bird is one of the most elegant among the representatives of its family, because it has a bright coat on its back and a blue comb on its head. It lives mainly in North America: in Canada and the USA.

The size of the blue jay is up to 30 cm, and the weight is about 100 grams. Birds are very talented and quickly learn to imitate human speech. Males are larger than females.

Appearance and special coloration

The main feature is clearly visible in the photo of the blue jay. She has a long crest with a bright blue color. The eyes are framed by a black ring. The presence of a strong black beak makes it easy to crack the hard shell of nuts and seeds. Blue feathers grow on the wings. The tail has a stepped shape, and it is quite long. Eye color is dark. Differences incoloration between male and female is not observed.

Where blue jays live

These birds prefer to inhabit parks, gardens, deciduous forests and coniferous thickets, residential areas. But they have a special love for oak groves. They also settle in pine forests.

What birds eat

The beautiful jay has quite an impressive diet. She eats plants, mushrooms and various animals. For example:

• acorns, seeds and nuts;
• bugs, spiders and caterpillars;
• chicks, frogs and lizards.

Smart bird, before cracking a nut, shake it a little. This is how she determines if there is a grain in the shell.

Sometimes the blue jay behaves like a hooligan and takes food from other birds. Likes to steal berries from the beds. The blue jay is only partly considered migratory. Only northern populations can fly south in cold weather. During the flight, they gather in large flocks.

The rest of the blue jays remain to winter. Therefore, they need to stock up on food. They store them under the foliage, bury them in the ground, or hide them in the bark of trees. The stock of acorns of one jay for the winter can be up to five thousand pieces. Pictured is a blue jay picking berries.

Sometimes jays copy the behavior of a hawk. They drive hungry woodpeckers, gray squirrels and starlings away from their food.

Jays have excellent memories. These birds remember all their hiding places with numerous hidden reserves, among which, there are alwaysacorns and seeds.

Character of the blue beauty

This bird is the owner of a restless and at the same time cautious nature. Jay is the first to feel the approach of danger. She warns her relatives by making sharp cries. Sometimes in this case they gather in flocks. They begin to attack the enemy and peck him.

Jay is related to crows and magpies. They all love shiny things. They steal them and take them to their home. Jay is a wonderful imitator of the voices of other birds. For this talent, the people call her a mockingbird.

When a bird visits a human settlement, upon returning to its wilderness, it may begin to imitate the bleating of a goat or the mewing of a kitten.

The blue jay is so varied in mimicking sounds that it can reliably show:

• bell-like sounds;
• melodic whistles;
• Cry of the hawk.

Jays can easily become prey to predators because they don't fly very fast. They are often attacked by hawks and owls. Jays are quite brave as they engage predators, fighting back desperately, and not trying to elude them at all.

The enemies that ravage their nests are crows, snakes, cats and even squirrels.

Jay hygiene

Young birds begin to molt at the end of summer, and in August everything ends. Adult birds change plumage over a long period of time, from about July to September.

When molting occurs, blue jays love to take ant baths. They specifically sit onanthills and bathe in them. This is explained by the fact that in this way, they relieve itching during the growth of new feathers.

How blue-winged birds arrange families

In a family, the main person is the father of the family, then the brothers, and lastly the mother and sisters.

Only mom and dad can produce offspring. Mating in front of children never occurs. But when a father dies in a family, the eldest son inherits the territory.

If young couples find a free place in the bush, they can start their own family. But such an opportunity will appear in about four years. Jays mate for life.

During the courtship period, the female, like a real woman, is naughty, pretends to be small and asks to be fed from her beak. The groom feeds his beloved.

A couple tries to build some nests, but at the same time leaves them unfinished. Perhaps they are checking each other's economic vein.

When communicating with each other, jays use their beautiful crest.

As soon as the first warm days begin, the mating season begins for the birds. From mid-April to June, jays pair up and begin to build a family nest.

They lay six or seven yellow-green eggs with brown spots. The female is incubating the chicks. Babies appear in one week. Parents together feed the babies, clean their feathers, keep them warm and protect them from predators. After two weeks, the young fly away from the nest.

But another twenty days he returns to his parentsfor lunch. At first, the chicks feed exclusively on caterpillars, but after that they switch to plant foods.

Physiological development in jays comes in a year. In nature, they live from about ten to eighteen years.

What is the use of birds in the forest

Jay brings invaluable benefits to forest vegetation, as it destroys forest pests and insects:

• Maybeetles;
• horse beetles;
• weevils;
• caterpillars.

Unwittingly they spread the plants. Lost or forgotten seeds and acorns sprout and form groves.

Interesting facts

The blue jay has excellent human contact and is fairly easy to tame. Feels good in captivity.

The bird is constantly showing aggression, and therefore it is impossible to keep it together with other relatives.

The beautiful jay is considered a ruiner. Every year they destroy a large number of nests of small birds by drinking eggs and killing chicks.

The blue jay is the mascot of many sports teams, such as the Toronto basketball team.

The most beautiful birds in the family

The black-headed blue jay is a member of the genus Cyanocitta (blue jays). It also belongs to the corvidae family.

The black-headed blue jay lives on overgrown mountain slopes and in coniferous groves of America. In winter, these birds can also be found on the plains.

The black-headed jay has a longer and thinner beak, and the crest is somewhat larger than that of its relatives. Feather cover on topthe body is black, and the underside is dark blue. White stripes stand out on the forehead.

It is believed that the blue scrub jay differs from its other relatives in color. Lives exclusively in Florida. It is listed in the Red Book. Individuals are ringed in different colors.

This stunningly graceful bird is currently on the verge of extinction. The head, wings and tail are blue in color, and the belly and chest are gray. This jay feeds on reptiles and insects, but at the same time consumes vegetation and seeds.

Frequent wildfires, which now and then happen in Florida, destroy bush jays. Every year they become less and less.