Blue jays

To many people, blue jays do not appear so appealing.
They are very unkind birds, and make a lot of noise. But
underneath all the noise, and hard feelings, blue jays
are some very interesting and kind of quirky animals.
Being so loud and obnoxious, they seem to be a
nuisance more than anything else. But when listening
carefully, you will realize that blue jays have the
ability to actually mimic other birds, especially hawks.
This may be to warn other blue jays that there is a
hawk in the area, or to trick other animals into thinking
there is.
Blue jays are omnivores. This means they eat both
vegetable foods and meat. Most of the time their diet
consists of berries, nuts and insects. But on unusual
occasions they also eat frogs, small rodents such as
mice, and very rarely even other birds' eggs.
It is unknown why some blue jays migrate while
others don't. One year a blue jay will go south, the next
year remain in the north, and the following year go
south again. When they do migrate, they fly quite high,
and travel in flocks of up to 250 birds.
Blue jays usually lay four to six eggs at a time, and the
chicks take about two weeks to mature. The nests are
anywhere from eight to 20 feet up in coniferous trees
(and sometimes deciduous) in city parks, suburban
yards, and woodland swamps. When mature, the
grown blue jay stands about 10- 12 inches tall. It is
difficult to tell male and female blue jays apart, because
there is so little difference between the two.
Blue jays live mainly east of the Rocky Mountains.
Farther west is the Steller's jay, a somewhat scrawnier
version of our fat, rowdy blue jays.
- By Jack Wilde and Dana Wilde