Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Blue Jay


This picture was taken May 2nd 2006 in our back yard. You can tell it's spring by the seed pods hanging from the birch tree and the leaves just starting to come out. Blue Jays are a very noisy bird and they can imitate others. One bird that they've been known to imitate is the Red Tailed Hawk. Do they do this to warn others of the presence of a Red Tailed Hawk or just to frighten other birds away from their food, or are they just being the jester saying, ha ha I fooled you? Who knows. I guess only the Blue Jays know for sure.

2 comments:

Sue said...

That is really cool information about the Jay making the same sound as the Red Tailed Hawk. They have so many songs don't they? I was walking with my granddaughter this past Tues. morning out at the Grand River in Caledonia. I had forgotten how many blue jays there are out there. I used to live there but live in the city now. We had a blue jay nest on our back flood light against the house. It was really cool at first but you should have seen the mess it made on the wall AND the noise oh my. I had to keep reminding myself what a great learning opportunity it was for my children. Now in retrospect I am so glad we had a chance to see it so close.

Fred's photos said...

Thanks Sue. Since you've seen Bue Jays nesting, you're probably aware that the female does most of the sitting on the eggs, but the male, lovingly brings her food. They both participate in feeding the young.