A Bird's Eye View

Image: Blue Jay with its crest lowered indicating it is calm. Source unknown.

I have to admit, I've had a love/hate relationship with Blue Jays for most of my life. Although their beautiful blue coloring was always quite appealing to me, I distained their jarring vocalizations. Plus, as a very young child, a neighbor regaled me with stories of Blue Jays viscously raiding other birds' nests for eggs and hatchlings. It was a claim oft repeated by others over the years, making this distinctive bird disagreeable to me.

And, yet, over the decades, these "birds of bullying" continued captivating me with their beautiful coloring. So, I sought clarity, and discovered that they aren't really deserving of the bad rap they've been given. Like everyone else, they're searching for a good meal (mainly for their hatchlings), and although nest raiding is definitely a means to an end for Blue Jays, it isn't their first or even their second attempt to secure food. In fact, it's often their last. A large study of the feeding habits of Blue Jays revealed less than 1% of the subjects' stomachs contained either eggs or birds. This revelation was just the beginning of the undoing of my erroneous opinions about the Blue Jay.

With the "thug theory" dismantled, my curiosity escalated. and when I explored their noisy, jarring vocalizations my judgement softened even further. Although this large songbird does not participate in the dawn chorus it does employ a broad variety of calls, of which the context of many remains unknown. Their typical jeer, which is loud and distinctive, gains our attention (and often our annoyance), however, the Blue Jay has been observed, on occasion, perched in a tree quietly running through a myriad of whisper-quiet sounds meant as a reflexive gesture rather than communicative. According to bird observer, Diane Porter, they also "click, cluck, rattle, chortle, mew, whistle, peep, buzz and ring like a bell". Porter further reveals that they are adept at mimicking human speech, and can replicate a person's voice so accurately they fool everyone within earshot! They even "meow" like a cat. To say these birds have a lot to say, and many ways to say it is an understatement!

Image: Blue Jay with raised crest indicating it is "on high alert". Sharon Sauriol Photography

Perhaps the most intriguing revelation I discovered pertains to their colorization. Wouldn't you assume by virtue of its very name that the Blue Jay is blue? Unlike a Cardinal, whose feathers are actually red, the Jay's feathers are in fact black. Their pigmentation features a fascinating mechanism called structural color that manifests a kind of optical illusion. By definition, white is the absence of color, and black is the presence of all color. Within its feathers' barbs are microscopically structured surfaces that interfere with light's absorption, causing its wavelength to refract instead. This mutation permits the human eye to perceive only the blue pigment. Try holding a Blue Jay feather up to a light source, allowing it to stream through the feather to your eyes. From this particular angle the light's wavelength defeats the nanostructures, and thus we are able to see the feather's true color, black.

An optical illusion allows us to see the Jay as blue, when, in fact, it is actually black. (click on the image to expand)

Images: Lisa Careau for APD (Cathexis)

To rightly appreciate the Blue Jay is to understand the depth of its intelligence as evidenced by the species' complex social system and adaptability. Living within small flocks, they are family oriented; mating for life, they fiercely protect their nests. As no two look exactly alike, the black bridle located on the face, nape and throat varies broadly, and helps Blue Jays recognize one another. Further, various studies have shown captive Jay's will make and use tools such as tearing and crumpling a piece of newspaper to obtain out-of-reach food pellets. In the wild, Blue Jays spend an inordinate amount of their time preparing for the perils of the winter ahead, particularly between October and November, when acorns (a favorite food) have matured and are at peak nutrition. Utilizing its beak to carry up to five acorns at a time, a Blue Jay will bury them in the ground as far away as two miles, then return at a later date to consume its bounty. In fact, they bury so many during the fall , between 3,000-5,000, they forget where they've placed the majority of their stashes. Consequently, Blue Jays are attributed with seeding the eastern United States with oaks after the last glacial period, as well as the proliferation of these great forests henceforth. (imagine, a species of bird made this happen!)

Image: from "The Birds of America", John James Audubon, 1827, plate 102.

Why then do we begrudge the Blue Jay a warm and appreciative place in our hearts? Perhaps it was long ago, when the naturalist and painter, John James Audubon, rendered the Blue Jay as a pilfering passerine that its unseemly reputation was established (apparently, disrepute is a hard thing to shake). But, despite being maligned and misunderstood, the Blue Jay remains a magnificent and magical creature to whom our reverence is owed— after all, you've but to see the forest through the trees.

Image: source unknown

---