Blue Jay:



The bird is named Cyanocitta Cristata scientifically but known by many other names locally. It belongs to the family of passerine birds and relates to the corvidae family, making it a native of North America. The bird is also called American jay. The bird has a fantastic adaptability and an aggressive characteristic which makes it possible to live around in any surrounding. These are omnivorous birds, hence can live upon any type of available food.
The bird has a normal length around 22 to 30 centimetres and could weigh around 100 grams. The wingspan makes it around 43 cm wide while flying. The appearance is quite characteristic and can help to spot the bird quite easily. There is a crest on the top of its head, which looks similar to a crown it may be wearing. This crown shaped crest is actually a formation of feathers and they can be either in the raised or the normal form which happens according to the mood of the bird. When the bird is excited or in an aggressive mood, the crest gets fully raised. The crest takes a brush shape outwards, when the bird is frightened and the crest is in flat state, while it is feeding or resting around. The plumage of the bird is mid-blue to lavender blue. The colour spreads across to the back of its body, and then up to its tail and wings. The side of the head also carries this colour, with the under parts mainly in white or off-white colour. The neck has a stripe of black colour around it, giving it a look of a collar around it. Wings would have a spectrum of colours ranging from white, black and sky-blue tones. The bill of the bird with eyes and legs are all in complete black colour. The feathers of this bird are so put together, that the colour it gets is due to the refraction and is an exemplary case of structural colouration.
It is apparent while looking at the bill, that it’s short and quite strong. The bird can easily crack nuts and loves to munch on seeds, grains and other similarly available eatables. They also pick up grasshoppers and caterpillars for their food.
Jays have excellent vocal capabilities and can make different type of calls. They can also mimic the speech of humans if trained. The most commonly known sound would be that of a loud high pitched sound. These calls get even louder, when the bird is in agitated flight.
The bird is seen around southern Canada to central US. There are lot of other species seen across different parts of northern US which are part of the same genus.
The bird loves to occupy places on the pine wood tree and other spruce-fir forests which are commonly seen around Ontario region. The bird avoids denser forests, hence is not seen around those areas a lot. The bird is a slow flyer and can be easily hunted down by owls and hawks midair. The level of tail and body are the same while they fly. But the bird is quite intelligent and curious in nature.

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