After spending a few minutes watching the Toronto Blue Jays take a 6-3 lead over the Oakland A’s yesterday – a few minutes, which caused me to be late for a very exciting trip to the dump to view some black bears – I thought it would be a good idea to devote today’s Wild Fact to this iconic bird. This popular and common bird found throughout North America is known for their bright blue colour, variety of calls and of course their intelligence. Let’s explore each of these behaviours a little deeper, shall we?

All About The Colours

So we will start with the beautiful dark blue colouring of the Blue Jay. Believe it or not, this symbolic colour is actually caused by a brown pigment in their feathers known as melanin. Wait?! If it is brown, how come the feathers are a pretty blue colour? Well, my bird loving friends, the blue shade is a result of light scattering as it passes through the modified barbs one each and every Blue Jay feather. While I am not sure what benefit these birds receive from being blue, I do know that the black patches on their face may help them identify each other. Basically, they are wearing one of those “Hello, my name is…” tags on their face.

The Jay Who Cried Hawk

If you happen to live in North America, you have probably heard the typical Blue Jay call, which sounds like someone yelling “Jay, Jay”…hence their common name. What you may not realize though, is this is just one of the many calls our featured animal has. In fact, these particular birds have even been known to mimic the calls of the Red-Shouldered Hawk. One theory as to why they mimic this deadly bird of prey is to trick other birds sitting around the feeder. That’s right, other hungry birds sitting on a feeder will scatter when they hear the cries of a hawk, leaving plenty of space for the crafty little Blue Jay to come and take its place. If this doesn’t show the intelligence of our North American Blue Jay then I don’t know what does.