The handsome blue jay is one smart bird

When I think about blue jays, I am reminded of the baseball movie, "Bull Durham." The movie has its share of funny moments, as well as a surprising number of life lessons. In this case, I am thinking of Nuke LaLoosh and his desire to "announce my presence with authority" to hitters despite the advice of Crash Davis. When blue jays come to visit your backyard, they often let you know it with their loud boisterous calls. To me, they seem to "announce their presence with authority" to the other birds. While some find it annoying, I love hearing them — and there is a method to their madness. The often overlooked and underappreciated blue jay is a stunning bird that is frequently dismissed in comparison to cardinals, bluebirds and goldfinches at the backyard feeders. Dashing in its soft blue, black, white and gray colors, it features a head crest, black necklace and striped tail feathers. I would suggest that a visitor to our area seeing the blue jay for the first time would find the experience exhilarating. Blue jays are a member of the Corvidae family, which includes crows, ravens and magpies. The family is regarded as the most intelligent of the bird species. They have a high brain-to-body mass ratio, similar to the great apes. Crows and ravens, in particular, enjoy showing off their intelligence. Thomas Sadler Roberts (1848-1946), Professor of Ornithology and Director of the Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota, wrote about the blue jay, "This big, crested bird, arrayed in beautiful blue with trimmings of black and white, vies in beauty with the most radiant of our feathered tribe. Its intelligence and accomplishment place it in the first rank." Excellent mimics, one of the most recognizable sounds of the blue jay is their imitation of the red-shoulder hawk, which protects both them and other birds when a red-shouldered hawk is in the area. But blue jays have also seemed to learn that imitating this sound clears out the bird feeder, allowing them to enjoy the buffet all to themselves. The cunning brown-headed cowbird is no match for the intelligence of blue jays. Their attempts to insert a cowbird egg into a blue jay nest often results with the blue jay cracking and eating the egg — regarding the delivery of the egg as fast food. It is no coincidence that a jay is on the cover of Jennifer Ackerman's New York Times best seller book, The Genius of Birds. She writes, "I'm fond of jays, so brash, quarrelsome, jeering. The flocks of blue jays in my region are known for their close family bonds and complicated social systems, as well as their keen intelligence and sweet tooth for acorns. . . . Blue jays can select fertile acorns with 88 percent accuracy. They can also count to at least five." Blue jays are known for their affinity for peanuts and acorns. It's fun to watch a blue jay carefully sort through a selection of peanuts, before they leave to cache it. It has been suggested that the blue jays are "weighing" the peanuts to find the heaviest one. However, it is interesting that many of the buried acorns are never recovered, which result in the spreading of oak trees. While it might be too much to suggest in this symbiotic relationship to say that they are growing trees for future acorns, the effect is that blue jays are credited with the spread of the oak trees after the last glacial period. Today, 11 species of oak trees have become reliant on jays to disperse their seeds. They will bury a seed as far as 2 miles from where they obtained it and can cache up to 3,000 acorns a year (and remember where most of them are). Ackerman also noted the practice of anting by blue jays, a fascinating behavior in which the blue jay instinctively rubs an ant through its wings and feathers. She writes, "blue jays will use its own body as a napkin to rid the ants of their noxious formic acid spray, making them fit for eating." Whether their social system includes grieving for fallen birds is perhaps still being studied, though Ackerman noted her experience when "a flock of blue jays gathering around a red-tailed hawk that had just picked off one of its members. The surrounding jays were squalling and mobbing the murderer, who seemed unperturbed by their commotion. I hung around for a while until the hawk finally flew off with its plunder." Researchers suspect that mates and relatives may socially or emotionally mourn their loses. Ackerman agrees, "Surely grief isn't a human intervention any more than love or deceit or imagining what your mate might crave for dinner." They display sexual monomorphism in that male and female blue jays look alike. They form monogamous relationships and are unreliable migrators. They can be aggressive, and the head crest gives away their mood. Despite their beauty, prevalence, toughness and intelligence, they are yet to receive the distinction of a being a state bird — though they are well-known as the mascot for the Toronto Major League Baseball team. There are many beautiful jays in North America, including the Steller's jay, Florida scrub jay, Western scrub jay, green jay, Mexican jay and gray jay. I want to see them all. We're lucky to enjoy our blue jays on a regular basis. Blue jays may enjoy a long lifespan compared to other songbirds. Like most birds, survival depends on avoiding predators like hawks, racoons, snakes and cats, as well as human impact. They are not the fastest bird, which makes them attractive prey for raptors. The oldest recorded blue jay lived to be almost 27 years, before being killed by fishing gear. The next time blue jays "announce their presence with authority" at your feeder, pull up a chair and enjoy this wonderfully interesting and intelligent bird. Ear plugs are optional. Contact Rob Swindell at robswindell@roadrunner.com.