Identifying Birds
- Related Articles:

Identify Birds on Hikes and Vacations - Once you've start to identify the birds in your backyard the most natural progression is...

Spotting Birds' Nests - A few accounts on how to watch birds building their nests in the woods. Their habits and how to spot them - includes American Goldfinch, Woodpeckers and more.

Thistle Bird Feeders - Get Yellow Finches in Your Yard! - Many of the prettier North American birds are in the finch family...

Try our online bird identification book - currently text descriptions, but some bird photos have now been added!

Blue Jay

Common Backyard Birds

Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)

You either admire or hate this arrogant, foot-long hustler, easily identified by its brilliant colors. The blue jay is resident in the eastern United States and southern Canada, west into the Dakotas, Colorado, and Texas.

Bird Photo - Blue Jay Picture

Like most insolent creatures, this jay has a dual nature. Cautious and silent in the vicinity of its nest, it is bold and noisy away from it. Sly in the commission of mischief, it is ever ready to scream "thief" at anything poaching on its domain. As usual in such cases, its epithet is applicable to none more than itself, as neighboring nest holders know to their sorrow; for during the breeding season the joy lays heavy toll upon the eggs and young of other birds. But with all its sins of pride and lust, back yards are enlivened by the presence of blue jays.

Length	11 to 12 inches
Male	Blue above. Black band around the neck, joining some black feathers on the back. Under parts dusky white. Wing coverts and tail bright blue, striped transversely with black. Tail much rounded. Many feathers edged and tipped with white. Head finely crested; bill, tongue, and legs black.
Female	Same as male.
Range	Eastern coast of North America to the plains, and from northern Canada to Florida and eastern Texas.
Migrations	Permanent resident. Although seen in flocks moving southward or northward, they are merely seeking happier hunting grounds, not migrating.

No bird of finer color or presence sojourns with us the year round than the Blue Jay. In a peculiar sense his is a "beauty covering a multitude of sins."

Among close students of bird traits, we find none so poor as to do him reverence. Dishonest, cruel, inquisitive, murderous, voracious, villainous, are some of the epithets applied to this bird of exquisite plumage. Emerson, however, has said in his defense he does "more good than harm," alluding, no doubt, to his habit of burying nuts and hard seeds in the ground, so that many a waste place is clothed with trees and shrubs, thanks to his propensity and industry.

The Blue Jay is mischievous as a small boy, destructive as a monkey, deft at hiding as a squirrel. He is unsociable and un-amiable, disliking the society of other birds. His harsh screams, shrieks, and most aggressive and unmusical calls seem often intended maliciously to drown the songs of the sweet-voiced singers.

From April to September, the breeding and molting season, Blue Jays are almost silent, only sallying forth from the woods to pillage and devour the young and eggs of their more peaceful neighbors. In a bulky nest, usually placed in a tree-crotch high above our heads, from four to six eggs, olive-gray with brown spots, are laid and most carefully tended.

Notwithstanding the unlovely characteristics of the blue jay, we could ill spare the flash of color, like a bit of blue sky dropped from above, which is so rare a tint even in our land, that we number not more than three or four true blue birds, and in England, it is said, there is none.

In Stock!
Bird Supply store:

Bird Baths
Solar Bird Baths
Bird Bath Fountains

Bird Feeders
Finch Feeder
Glass Nectar Feeders

Attract Wild Birds - CONTACT - 613.332.5766

Identifying Birds - Related Articles:

Blue Jay

Identifying Birds
- Related Articles: