1. What's in a name?
2. What does it look like?
3. What does it sound like?
4. How does it behave?
5. Where does it live?
6. Cool Facts

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Common name: Blue Jay

Scientific name: Cyanocitta cristata

Spanish name: Chara Azul

French name: Geai bleu

"Family Tree" (Taxonomy)

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Corvidae

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? 

Description:

• Crest on head
• Upperparts various shades of blue to bluish gray with bold black and white markings on face and tail
• Off-white on belly
• Beak, legs and eyes are blackish
• Black eyeline and breast band
• Grayish white underparts
• Sexes similar

Size: 10-12 inches (Larger than an American Robin, smaller than a crow)

Similar species: Steller's Jays and Blue Jays are the only North American jays with barring on their wings and tails. Both are crested, but the Steller's Jay has a dark, almost black, head and crest and lacks any white underneath or on wings and tail.

Western Scrub-Jay is called Blue Jay in some areas, but it does not have a crest or the black-and-white barring in the wings and tail.

WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE? 

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Sounds provided by the Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds.

HOW DOES IT BEHAVE?

What does it eat? Omnivorous: acorns,seedsinsects, and small vertebrates (frogs, lizards, bats and rodents); eats carrion in winter.

Where does it eat? In trees and shrubs, on the ground, occasionally catches insects in the air; also feeds at bird feeders.

Who eats it? Medium to large hawks, falcons, owls (including the fairly small Eastern Screech-Owl). Nest predators include Swallow-tailed Kite, American Crow, Fish Crow, squirrels rat snakes eastern coachwhip, racer, and indigo snake. Probably raccoons, opossums, and perhaps king snakes, also. In some regions Peregrine Falcons known to take many adult jays.

Nesting: 2 - 7 blue-green to light brown, spotted eggs in a sturdy nest of sticks, twigs (usually taken from live trees, often with great struggle), bits of bark, leaves or trash, especially plastic holders from soda six-packs , sometimes even hanging intact ones on or near nest, in a tree (up to 30 feet high). When near human dwellings, usually incorporates light-colored bits of paper, tissue, cloth, string, wool, plastic, magnetic tape from cassettes, etc. in nest. Cup usually lined with tough rootlets; sometimes lined with wet, partially decomposed leaves. Mud often incorporated in nest.

WHERE DOES IT LIVE?

Range: Eastern and central U.S. and adjacent areas of southern Canada, north along coast to Newfoundland; south to Gulf Coast, westward to central Texas. Small, local, expanding populations westward to Washington.

Habitat: Edges of deciduous, coniferous and mixed forests; woodlands, parks, and residential areas particularly with oaks, beeches, and pines

COOL FACTS

• On cold mornings, adult Blue Jays will somtimes "pass gas" when they poop.
• Blue Jays will imitate the calls of hawks, especially the Red-shouldered Hawk. It has been suggested that these calls provide information to other jays that a hawk is around, or that they are used to deceive other species into believing a hawk is present.
• Blue Jays were probably one of the first North American birds that became well-known in Europe. The first color illustration is from the sixteenth century. In 1758, Linnaeus described the "Blew Jay" from illustrations and descriptions published by Catesby in 1754.
• Blue Jays will occasionally feed on wasp larvae by stealing the wasp nest and carrying it to a nearby perch. There, it will hold the nest in its foot and dig out the larvae with its beak.
• Blue Jays are famous for their ability to learn quickly and often are featured in text book descriptions about finding food. A Blue Jay usually is pictured regurgitating after eating a toxic insect (such as a monarch butterfly). The caption typically explains that they never eat that type of insect again (or anything that looks like it)!
• The relatively fast northern expansion of oak trees after the last glacial period may have been helped by Blue Jays. Each fall, jays store (cache) acorns by burying them in the ground. Some acorns are never eaten but end up sprouting where they were buried.
• Although the migration of Blue Jays is an obvious phenomenon, with thousands moving past some points along the coast, much about it remains a mystery. Some jays are present throughout the winter in all parts of the range. Which jays move and which stay put? Although young jays may be more likely to migrate than adults, many adults do migrate. Some individual jays may migrate south in one year, stay north the next winter, and then migrate south again the next year.
• Many people dislike the Blue Jay because it is known to eat the eggs and nestlings of other birds. However, in an extensive study of Blue Jay feeding habits, only 1% of jays had evidence of eggs or birds in their stomachs. Most of the diet was composed of insects and nuts.
• Male provides virtually all food for young nestlings and brooding female. Female subsequently may remove food from the mouths of certain nestlings in succession, appearing to be eating it, but perhaps may be distributing food among nestlings when certain nestlings do not swallow entire bolus.
• Tool use in birds is rare. Although no tool use has been reported for wild Blue Jays, captive jays used strips of newspaper to rake in food pellets from outside of their cages.
• As a form of play, juveniles often mumble twigs and other objects. Captive jays tug at feathers of cagemates or other objects.
• Juvenile observed swimming about 7.5 m after it had fallen into a pond. The bird propelled itself by pushing the water with its wings and feet, and water often washed over its head. It climbed on land with difficulty, obviously exhausted.
• When anting, grasps one or several ants by head or thorax and directs ant abdomen toward its underside beginning at base of shaft and proceeding toward tip. Often topple when anting. Ants usually discarded after an anting sequence, but may be used in a subsequent sequence or, on occasion, eaten.
• Squirrels and humans approaching within several meters of an active nest are vigorously chased by both members of a breeding pair when present. Cats on ground usually mobbed only when young on nest rim or recently fledged. When person is checking nest, parent jays usually swoop and sometimes strike person, typically while emitting loud "jeer" calls. Others simply call loudly without swooping.
• Longevity records of free-ranging marked birds include 9 years, 12 years, 13 years and 18 years. A captive female lived for 26 years, 3 months.

Be cool and count Blue Jays for science!

Check out Crows Count to find out how easy it is to help scientists learn about jays, crows, ravens, and magpies.

Sources used to contruct this page

Tarvin, K. A., and G. E. Woolfenden. 1999. Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata). In The Birds of North America, No. 469 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.