Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about blue jays. If you live where blue jays live then you probably know these birds pretty well. Not only do they come in brilliant shades of striking blue, they have loud (some might even say obnoxious) calls. But their most iconic call, which sounds like this, is only one in a repertoire of sounds they can produce. Blue jays are even able to mimic hawks, and they’ll do so to scare other birds away from bird feeders! These birds are almost always easy to spot, or at least hear, unless they don’t want to be.

Typically when blue jays are on or around their nests they act much more stealthy. These birds are known to mate for life, not leaving a partner unless one of the pair dies. They build haphazard nests, usually in trees, and the female will lay around four or five eggs. She does most of the incubation while the male feeds her. It takes a little over two weeks for the eggs to hatch and another three weeks before the chicks are ready to leave the nest. While their still in the nest and even after they leave, the young blue jays’ parents will feed them, though they will leave their parent’s territory about two months after their first flight.

Blue jays are able to breed within their first year, and some groups will migrate to wintering grounds while others stay right where they were born. Blue jay migration is a bit of a mystery to scientists because some birds from the same area will leave while others stay. And sometimes a group of blue jays will migrate one year but then stay home the next, so there’s still more to learn. Where they live, however, is typically open forests, preferably with oak trees. Blue jays will often be seen on the edges of forests, and they’ve also adapted to urban settings such as parks and backyards. They’re found in Canada and the United States, though they’re largely absent from the West coast. The West coast has their own blue jay relatives called Steller’s jays who look a lot like blue jays and share the same genus.

Blue jays are often frowned upon because they’re known to kill other birds and their nestlings, but really these birds have a mostly vegetarian diet. Blue jays on rare occasion do take other birds, along with insects, mice and frogs, but for the most part their diets consist of seeds and nuts. In fact, as the year draws closer to winter, blue jays will find upwards of thousands of acorns in their territories and stash them in places so they can eat them later. Rarely do the blue jays actually return to all the acorns they bury and thus it’s believed blue jays help to grow the forests in which they live!

Plus, blue jays aren’t immune to their own predators. Birds of prey, raccons, snakes, squirrels, and even domestic cats can all take blue jays or their eggs as a meal. Unlike some other birds we’ve talked about in the past, however, blue jays will aggressively defend themselves and their nests. They’re just not pushovers!

In size, blue jays may reach eleven inches (28 centimeters) in length and have wingspans that cover more than a foot (30.5 centimeters). Their crests are able to be raised and lowered at will and often denotes their attitude. A raised crest usually denotes a more aggressive disposition, while a lowered crest is often more congenial. This isn’t always the case, however, because blue jays will also take a submissive stance in which their crest is raised high and their feathers are puffed out to make the birds look like little poofs. And, believe it or not, they’re related to crows and ravens. In the wild, blue jays live to be about seven years old, though the oldest known wild blue jay was seventeen!

For more facts on blue jays, check out the links in the description. Thank you to jdutton24 for today’s request. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files!