Curious Gray Jay
by Gayle Swigart
Title
Curious Gray Jay
Artist
Gayle Swigart
Medium
Photograph - Photo - Photography
Description
Gray Jays are found primarily in mature, humid, sub-alpine, spruce forests. They do not generally breed below 2,000 feet, and are most often found from 3,000 feet and above to the tree line, although some are found nesting locally in lowland habitats.
Gray Jays are gregarious and are often found in family groups. They can be very bold and will beg from campers, follow hikers, and go inside cabins to steal food. These jays forage from perches and fly from tree to tree, scanning for food. They cache food during the summer and fall, using sticky saliva to paste it in bark crevices and other hidden spots, and they eat this stored food through the winter. Gray Jays often carry food with their feet in flight, which is unusual for songbirds.
Omnivores, Gray Jays eat a varied diet made up of seeds, berries, insects, and other invertebrates, fungi, small rodents, eggs and nestlings of other birds, carrion, and campground handouts.
Gray Jays are monogamous, and pairs stay together on their territories year round. They begin nesting in late winter; relying on the food they have cached to raise their young. They typically nest in a dense conifer tree, close to the trunk, usually within 15 feet of the ground. Both members of the pair help build the nest, which is a bulky cup of twigs, lichen, bark strips, and caterpillar webbing, lined with hair and feathers. The male brings food to the nest while the female incubates 2 to 5 eggs for about 18 days. The female broods the young for about four days, and then joins the male in feeding the young. The young leave the nest at 22 to 24 days, but stay with their parents for another 4 to 6 weeks. Recent studies have shown there to be a third, unrelated bird on the territory, helping throughout the nesting season. (Information per Seattle Audubon Society)
Uploaded
July 23rd, 2013
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