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Cyanocitta cristatablue jay

By Jake Frysinger

Geographic Range

Blue jays are native to the Nearctic region. They are common in southern Canada and in the United States, east of the Rocky Mountains. (Sanford 1984)

Habitat

Blue jays prefer mixed woodlands, particularly those with clearings. They are also common in suburban areas and city parks. (Reilly 1968)

Physical Description

Blue jays are bright blue on top and whitish gray on the belly and chin. They have a gray-blue, feather crested head, which they can raise and lower. The feathers on their wings and tails are bright blue with white and black bands. Blue jays also have a collar of black feathers across the throat and continuing around the head. Their bills, legs, feet, and eyes are black. Males are just a little larger, on average, than females. Total body length ranges from 22 to 30 cm. (Reilly 1968)

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • male larger
  • Range mass
    65 to 109 g
    2.29 to 3.84 oz
  • Range length
    22 to 30 cm
    8.66 to 11.81 in

Reproduction

Blue jays form long-lasting, monogamous pair bonds. These bonds usually last until one of the pair dies.

Blue jays build loose and untidy nests of barks, twigs, leaves, and grasses in trees and shrubs. The female lays three to six eggs at a time. These can be blue, green, or yellow, with brown or grey spots. The eggs must be incubated for 17 to 18 days. This is usually done by female, but in some cases males share in the incubation. Males provide food for females during incubation. Young fledge after 17 to 21 days and leave their natal range about 2 months after fledging. Blue jays may breed in their first year after hatching. (Zims 1956, Reilly 1968)

  • Breeding interval
    In the north, only one brood per year may be produced. In southern regions, however, Blue Jays may raise two broods each year.
  • Breeding season
    Blue Jays breed from March through July.
  • Range eggs per season
    3 to 6
  • Average eggs per season
    4
    AnAge
  • Average time to hatching
    17 days
  • Average time to hatching
    17 days
    AnAge
  • Range fledging age
    17 to 21 days
  • Average time to independence
    3 months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    1 years
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    1 years

Both males and females feed their nestlings. Young are able to feed themselves three weeks after they leave the nest, but stay with their parents for around two months after fledging.

  • Parental Investment
  • altricial
  • pre-fertilization
    • provisioning
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • protecting
      • male
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • provisioning
      • male
      • female
    • protecting
      • male
      • female

Lifespan/Longevity

The oldest blue jay studied by researchers in the wild lived to be 17 years and 6 months old, most blue jays live to about 7 years old. One captive female lived for 26 years and 3 months.

  • Range lifespan
    Status: wild
    17.5 (high) years
  • Range lifespan
    Status: captivity
    26.25 (high) years
  • Average lifespan
    Status: wild
    7 years
  • Average lifespan
    Status: wild
    210 months
    Bird Banding Laboratory

Behavior

Blue jays are very aggressive and noisy birds,driving other birds away from food sources and their territories. In the winter, Blue jays hide far more food than they can eat, perhaps to remove food from their territories to discourage intruders. They are also partially migratory, and in the fall they can be seen traveling in flocks of more than a hundred birds. (Sanford 1984)

Communication and Perception

Blue jays use bobbing motions when courting and when fighting. A signal of submission may be the "body-fluff" when the bird crouches down and fluffs up its feathers, holding the crest erect.

Blue jays have many calls. The one that is probably most familiar is the "jay" call for which it is named. This probably attracts other jays to join a flock or serves as an alarm call. Another call sounds like a rusty pump handle, and another sounds like a bell. Blue jays also make rattling sounds. In the spring you can hear very soft singing.

Food Habits

Blue jays are omnivorous. They feed on fruits, nuts, seeds, insects, mice, frogs, and will rob other nests for small songbirds and bird eggs. To eat nuts, blue jays hold them with their feet and then crack the shell with their bill. Blue jays in captivity have been known to fashion tools in order to get at foods. Blue jays will also steal foods from other birds by frightening them into dropping what they have. They cache foods, such as seeds, for later use. (Reilly 1968)

  • Animal Foods
  • birds
  • mammals
  • amphibians
  • reptiles
  • eggs
  • insects
  • terrestrial non-insect arthropods
  • Plant Foods
  • seeds, grains, and nuts
  • fruit

Predation

Blue jays will actively defend their nests against predators. Both parents will attack and chase hawks, falcons, raccoons, cats, snakes, squirrels, and even humans away from their nests. Adult blue jays are often preyed on by various species of hawks, owls, and falcons. Nestlings are preyed upon by squirrels, cats, snakes, American crows, other jays, raccoons, opossums, and birds of prey, such as hawks.

Ecosystem Roles

Because they hide seeds and nuts and sometimes forget to find and eat them, these birds probably help plants disperse their seeds.

  • Ecosystem Impact
  • disperses seeds

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

Blue jays are active and bold birds, making it easy to observe their fascinating behaviors.

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

There are no direct negative effects of blue jays on humans, although they may act as a reservoir for West Nile virus.

Conservation Status

Blue jay populations are on the rise, and they are often very common where they occur. The range is expanding westward. Populations may have suffered somewhat in previous centuries as their wooded habitats were cleared and may suffer where epidemics of West Nile virus affect bird populations. Blue jays are corvids, which seem particularly susceptible to this virus. (Reilly 1968)

Other Comments

Blue jays have been chosen as the mascot for many sports teams, including the Toronto Blue Jays, a professional baseball team.

(Reilly 1968)

Contributors

Tanya Dewey (editor), Animal Diversity Web.

Jake Frysinger (author), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Nearctic

living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

altricial

young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

diurnal
  1. active during the day, 2. lasting for one day.
endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

migratory

makes seasonal movements between breeding and wintering grounds

monogamous

Having one mate at a time.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

omnivore

an animal that mainly eats all kinds of things, including plants and animals

oviparous

reproduction in which eggs are released by the female; development of offspring occurs outside the mother's body.

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

social

associates with others of its species; forms social groups.

stores or caches food

places a food item in a special place to be eaten later. Also called "hoarding"

tactile

uses touch to communicate

temperate

that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

territorial

defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement

visual

uses sight to communicate

References

Reilly, Edgar M. Jr. 1968. The Audubon Illustrated Handbook of American Birds. McGraw-Hill, New York. pp.307-308.

Sanford, William F. 1984. Academic American Encylopedia. Grolier Incorporated, Connecticut. p.343.

Zim, Herbert S. and Ira N. Gabrielson. 1956. Birds: A guide to the most familiar American birds. Golden Press, New York. pp.76, 142.

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