Blue Jays – the Teenager of Birds

Posted on September 6, 2023 by

23 Comments

I don’t know if I’ve posted about Blue Jays before, but I do love these funny birds!

To me they are all teenagers, friendly and talkative if not screechy, hopping about in the trees above, voicing their opinions about everything and everyone on the ground below, and hoping that a kind human will throw out some peanuts.

I haven’t done that in years, but after today’s show in the trees maybe I will!

We grew up calling them Blue Jays, but they are technically Steller’s Jays, so there is that!

My bird group in Facebook is always happy to correct me. 😉 But old habits die hard!

~ Susanne

Category: BirdsTags: ,

23 Comments on “Blue Jays – the Teenager of Birds”

  1. He/she is a beauty! The feathers are different from the Blue Jays in Michigan which have white or much lighter feathers on other areas.

    • I just updated my post at the end. We grew up calling them Blue Jays, but they are actually called Steller Jays. And they are indeed a handsome shade of blue!

      • Oh, you reminded me of reading about this species, thanks, Susanne! They are different on the west coast. I guess that’s what living in Michigan into your 50s does! 😂

  2. Jay family birds are characters at feeders! When they come around, they call out danger calls that clear the other birds away so the jays have easy access to the food. On the other hand, when there is genuine danger, they are the first to sound the alarm for any birds that return after they cleared out for the jay’s false alarm and see the jays at the feeders.

  3. Our environments are similar (we’re in northern California), so we seem to have many of the same species. Steller’s Jays are one of the most common birds in our area. I’ve noticed we get similar species of hummingbirds, too.

  5. We have true Blue Jays here – and just like most humans I like what I don’t have more! The Steller’s Jays are truly stellar!

    • I’ve only rarely seen a true Blue Jay in my travels. They’re beautiful too! But I agree the deep blue of the Steller’s Jay is hard to beat! We grew up in Seattle calling them Blue Jays and old habits die hard, they’ll always be Blue Jays to me!.💙

  6. They are so pretty! At our old house there were Blue Jays that had a loud territorial dispute one summer. It was fun to watch but they are loud.

  7. I love the photos and your descriptions of these lively birds. Such a pretty colour, I wish we got them over here!

    • That’s it! 😁You wouldn’t believe the number of comments I got on Facebook when I misidentified them. I remembered later they were called Steller’s Jays, but I grew up calling them blue jays by virture of their incredible color! And old habits die hard! 💙

      • When we would camp in Yosemite, they would slowly gather near us as we ate breakfast outside, giving us those sidelong glances only birds can do. Throw that one piece of toast and a riot ensues 🙂

  10. My mom used to have a family of jays that would land on her shoulder to take a peanut. Sadly, when West Nile virus came to our valley, they were decimated and have never returned. The crows, on the other hand, have regained their numbers. I read that the virus was recently detected in mosquitoes around here again. I’m hoping the survivors have a better immunity than the ones who died had.

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