Western Scrub-jay by Ken _Gilliland

Photography • Animals • posted on Dec 05, 2011

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Description

One of my favorite birds, the Western Scrub-jay, is highly intelligent. This particular jay ("Scruffy") mimics a special whistled tune by me. He'll land on my bedroom window sill in the morning and start sing the tune-- a subtle hint that it's time for the lazy human to wake up and give him his daily ration of peanuts. He then plants the peanuts through-out the yard (for those peanut-less days). Scrub-Jays have been used in laboratory studies of its ability to hide and remember seeds. Jays that had stolen the caches of other jays noticed if other jays were watching them hide food. If they had been observed, they would dig up and hide their food again. Jays that had never stolen food did not pay any attention to whether other jays were watching them hide their food. Jays can remember approximately 50% of their hiding places. Jays often get humans to do their biding in other ways. In one account, a pair of scrub-jays directed a homeowner across a yard to scare off a cat in a tree close to their nest. Scrub-jay have formed a symbiotic relationship with mule deer. They hop over the body and head of the deer to eat parasites. The deer often help the jays by standing still and holding their ears up. Scrub-Jays in areas where acorns are abundant have deep, stout, slightly hooked bills while those in areas with lots of pinyon pine have long, shallow, pointed bills. This evolutionary change has created the right bill for the right food source. Captured with a Nikon 5000.

Comments (26)

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clbsmiley

12:49PM | Mon, 05 December 2011

What a great capture! Beautiful blue. :)

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vitachick

1:04PM | Mon, 05 December 2011

Excellant capture and great history of the bird..

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jarmila

1:34PM | Mon, 05 December 2011

nice bird, never saw here

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Ken _Gilliland

1:43PM | Mon, 05 December 2011

ooops-- forgot to add.... Western Scrubs are found in the United States-west of the Rockies. The endangered Florida Scrub-jay looks almost exactly like the Western Scrub-jay but the behavior is totally different. Florida Scrub-jays cooperate, working as a community, to survive whether as the Western Scrub-jay is notoriously aggressive -- even sometimes to siblings and mates-- every bird for themselves-type behavior.

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lajasmine

2:01PM | Mon, 05 December 2011

Superbe photographie!

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Jean_C

2:06PM | Mon, 05 December 2011

Splendid bird, excellent capture!

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BIPOLARTWO

2:59PM | Mon, 05 December 2011

Stunning capture with fine detail

alanwilliams

4:42PM | Mon, 05 December 2011

superb

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A.C.Wolfe

5:32PM | Mon, 05 December 2011

Super photo

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morningglory

6:26PM | Mon, 05 December 2011

Nice pic and great info. I have lived in Florida 40 years and have only seen a Scrub Jay a couple of times.

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mps

6:32PM | Mon, 05 December 2011

Splendid image

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adorety

6:50PM | Mon, 05 December 2011

Really fantsstic shot and some truly fascinating info.

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psyoshida

8:28PM | Mon, 05 December 2011

A beautiful shot of Scruffy. He is pretty and I loved reading his story. What a lovely way to wake up!

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jocko500

9:16PM | Mon, 05 December 2011

love how the branch pulls you and and you see the bird

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charpix

9:58PM | Mon, 05 December 2011

We had a lot of scrub jays here, but the magpies moved in and chased them off. Then the crows moved in and chased the magpies out. Then they all died. We are just now finding a few scrub jays and magpies in the neighborhood. Whatever caused them to die off has me worried. Beautiful capture.

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