They’re the massive guys on the chicken feeder, arriving with a vivid blue flash and a shrill jay! jay! name. Considered one of our bigger North American songbirds, Blue Jays are year-round residents in woodlands, parks, and residential areas wherever east of the Rockies. Along with their dazzling plumage and beefy construct, a distinguished crest and heavy invoice make these birds instantly recognizable.
Not everyone seems to be all the time comfortable to see them, although. Blue Jays might be aggressive and can scare off smaller feeder favorites to assert the bounty for themselves, giving the birds a bad rap. However there may be rather more to Blue Jays than their boisterous methods. The birds are extremely clever and filled with surprises, together with near-perfect impressions of a number of frequent hawks. Learn on to be taught which of them, together with extra enjoyable Blue Jay details beneath.
1.) Their title is a lie—Blue Jays should not truly blue. As with most different blue birds, the principle pigment in jay feathers is melanin, which primarily creates brown, black, or grey coloring. The feathers seem blue due to microscopic structures and air pockets on the floor that scatter blue mild whereas absorbing all different colours. However when a Blue Jay’s feathers are lit from behind, it’s clear that they’re, the truth is, mild brown.
2.) Not like in most chicken species, telling aside female and male Blue Jays is almost inconceivable. Each boast the identical vivid blue hues and just about an identical markings, however on common males are typically barely bigger. Maybe essentially the most telling clue is of their calls: Solely feminine jays emit a rattle call, accompanied by a bobbing movement, when disturbed.
3.) The easiest way to understand how a Blue Jay is feeling? Their crests. The birds are extraordinarily animated, and so they use that telltale tuft of blue atop their heads to speak their present emotional standing. On the feeder, their crests will typically be raised because the birds aggressively declare feeding territory and scare off different species. However round nestlings and members of their very own flock, they loosen up, utterly decreasing their crests.
4.) Regardless of these pointy crests and flashy feathers, Blue Jays are literally a part of the very smart corvid household, which additionally contains crows, ravens, and magpies. Like their relations, Blue Jays can acknowledge and keep in mind human faces. They’ll additionally distinguish people amongst their very own species, since every Blue Jay has a barely completely different black bridle strip throughout their face, nape, and throat.
A expertise for remembering faces isn’t the one similarity Blue Jays have with crows.
5.) A expertise for remembering faces isn’t the one similarity Blue Jays have with crows: The birds have additionally been identified to make use of instruments. Whereas it was lengthy thought that the species didn’t use instruments within the wild, in 2025, a Blue Jay was recorded for the primary time using bark to extract a spider on the department of a pine tree. And in captivity, Blue Jays have been recorded utilizing strips of newspaper to pull in food pellets from outdoors their cages.
6.) Subsequent time you suppose you hear a Purple-tailed Hawk, first verify if it’s a Blue Jay. The birds are expert mimics identified for his or her uncanny Purple-tailed impressions. In addition they imitate Purple-shouldered and Cooper’s Hawks. Scientists consider the birds make these calls to trick and scare off different birds at feeders and meals sources, in addition to for an alarm when predators are literally close by. Captive Blue Jays have discovered to imitate a cat’s meow, the chime of a washer and dryer, and even human speech.
7.) Their favourite meals on the feeder is peanuts, however Blue Jays in suburban environments typically get a hankering for one thing uncommon: paint. The birds have been identified to chip off light-colored paint to retailer and eat later, most probably for the limestone these paints include—a supply of calcium wanted to put eggs. If your home is experiencing Blue Jay paint removing, strive placing out egg shells for a natural source of calcium.
8.) One other favourite meals for Blue Jays is acorns—a lot in order that the birds have advanced an expandable esophagus specifically designed to hold as most of the nuts as potential. One jay can match as much as three giant acorns at a time of their throat and can normally maintain yet another on the finish of their beak. To maximise their masses, the birds peck the acorn cap off first.
9.) In fact, jays don’t eat all of these acorns directly; they cache them for the winter when meals is scarce. A single Blue Jay can conceal as much as 5,000 acorns by burying them within the floor at completely different areas throughout the panorama. Nonetheless, they solely keep in mind the place 1 out of 4 of these had been buried, successfully planting hundreds of oak timber every year. In truth, the birds are thought-about important in spreading oak, beech, and chestnut trees in North America after the final glacial interval.
10.) Whereas Blue Jays might be discovered all through their vary year-round, some populations, particularly alongside the Nice Lakes and Atlantic coasts, are partially migratory, transferring southward in fall and northward in spring. Not like most birds, jays’ migration patterns aren’t constant; some will migrate one 12 months however not the following. In addition they transfer through the day and in giant flocks. Younger Blue Jays usually tend to migrate than adults, however scientists nonetheless aren’t positive why.
