When I was a child growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, I spotted a blue jay fledgling on the ground and went after it. I was trying to catch it, I thought it needed help, as it was barely able to fly. Suddenly I heard the parents screaming in anger, dropping down from the trees, dive bombing my head. They swooshed close and pecked the top of my head as I fled the scene. It was a lesson I will never forget. The small can be mighty.
Blue jays, like other corvids, are highly curious, intelligent birds. Young individuals playfully snatch brightly coloured or reflective objects, such as bottle caps or pieces of aluminum foil, and carry them around until they lose interest. They can warn other birds about hawks and other threats by using loud calls. They also have been known to imitate hawks to scare away competitive birds at feeders, so that they can have all the food.
Emily Dickerson wrote a short poem about them, which I love.
“No brigadier throughout the year So civic as the jay. A neighbor and a warrior too, With shrill felicity
Pursuing winds that censure us A February day, The brother of the universe Was never blown away. “
When I was a child growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, I spotted a blue jay fledgling on the ground and went after it. I was trying to catch it, I thought it needed help, as it was barely able to fly. Suddenly I heard the parents screaming in anger, dropping down from the trees, dive bombing my head. They swooshed close and pecked the top of my head as I fled the scene. It was a lesson I will never forget. The small can be mighty.
Blue jays, like other corvids, are highly curious, intelligent birds. Young individuals playfully snatch brightly coloured or reflective objects, such as bottle caps or pieces of aluminum foil, and carry them around until they lose interest. They can warn other birds about hawks and other threats by using loud calls. They also have been known to imitate hawks to scare away competitive birds at feeders, so that they can have all the food.
Emily Dickerson wrote a short poem about them, which I love.
“No brigadier throughout the year
So civic as the jay.
A neighbor and a warrior too,
With shrill felicity
Pursuing winds that censure us
A February day,
The brother of the universe
Was never blown away. “