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Blue Jay
Cyanocitta cristata
42.5292, -83.6723
Field Notes
Description:
These very pretty members of the corvidae family are noisy and bold... they are also greedy and tend to be the bullies of the feeding table.
They can be easily recognized by their blue wings and tail with black bars and black necklace with a whitish underside.
They are a lot more common at feeding tables, etc in the fall and winter but can be found in the Northern US year round.
As you can see from the photograph, they often put on aerobatic displays when negotiating feeding rights.
They have a noisy "Jay! Jay! Jay!" call and a rather musical "Weedle-eedle!" song and will often imitate the call of the Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) - possibly to eliminate competition at the feeding stand by scaring off smaller songbirds.
Habitat:
They are very common in suburban areas, parks and woodlands.
Notes:
They seem to love peanuts as a source of food.
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