Canada Jays, eh?

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Canada Jays, eh?

Aug 28, 2022

Canada Jays, or, you might call them Gray Jay’s, Camp Robber’s, Whiskey Jack’s, or some consider them just plain pests. Never seen one? You might mistake them for an overgrown chickadee. Certainly, they are in Canada, Alaska, and in a thin line down the Rocky Mountains of the US. They prefer wooded areas thick with evergreens. You won’t find them in the cities or areas east of the Rockies. They stay put, not migrating, deftly handling the coldest of Canadian winters.

These wicked-smart birds are members of the Corvid family which include crows, ravens, magpies, rooks, Stellers Jays, and nutcrackers. Their intelligence is sometimes compared with dolphins and chimpanzees in sheer brain-to-body-size ratios. They are masters at snatching a meal. Landing on our hands for a snack, they have made us suckers by providing them with more food. Keep your mountain picnic food covered, though, as they will invite themselves to dine on most everything you’ve got. The Whiskey Jack name actually comes from the Cree mythology character, wîskicahk, a trickster.

We can whistle for them on our deck and the three of them (I’ll get to that in a minute), will swoop in for blueberries, grapes, seeds, cat food, crackers, or most anything you offer them or more likely, what they can snitch. As a Corvid, they are omnivores and will also go for meats in carcasses (or your sandwich), mice, voles, mushrooms, insects, and even smaller birds. They will cram their beaks full with as much as they can hold. Pigs? Nope, survivors. They fly off to stash away food that they have treated, packaged in their own saliva, in the gaps in tree bark and lichens for winter meals. Much like their squirrel buddies, they can remember a myriad, literally, thousands, of these hiding spots in their sophisticated ‘scatter hoarding’.

Initially, we thought we had two couples residing near us, then noticed it was consistently just three of them, thinking one had fallen to a fox or hawk. Turns out, when the 3-5 chicks from a nest are a couple months old, the dominant of the chicks kicks the others out of their nest and territory to go survive on their own, and to find other pushed-out Canada Jays and form new families. The dominant one then remains with the parents until the next spring.

By the time other birds are establishing their nests in the spring, the Canada Jay’s brood have already fledged. Nest sites are chosen in late January, with building in February and eggs in March. Fledging by April to May. They seem to thrive on the cold and are covered in thick, downy feathers, right down to their nostrils to manage the cold, winter air.

Yet, for all of Canada Jay’s smarts, survival strategies, and adaptations, studies are showing a large decline in their numbers in recent decades. Up to two-thirds of the populations in some areas are being affected by clear-cutting of their forests and climate change, warming their territories and altering nesting timing and options. As Canada’s National Bird, a brilliant choice considering what you’ve just learned about them, Canadian scientists are studying all they can. In fact, the Algonquin Canada Jay study is one of the longest-running bird studies, beginning back in the mid-1970s. The more that can be understood of the effects on one species, the more we can apply this knowledge to effects on broader populations of wildlife. The Canada Jay would like your attention for more than just food!

So, if you live in an area with Canada Jay’s, and one lands on your railing, try offering a blueberry in your hand. They might just steal a bit of your heart along with that blueberry.

Sources:

-All about birds/ Canada Jay https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Canada_Jay/overview

- 10 Facts about Canada Jays / Lesley the Bird Nerd