Did you know that there is more than one species of Blue Jay? It’s true, the common blue jay that North Americans see in our backyards aren’t the only ones that fly around North America. There are actually a few close relatives of the Blue Jay that have similar behaviors and characteristics as the common Blue Jay. When you see how species are ancestrally related (such as the Blue Jay and its relatives) it can help you see how they are related and understand why each individual species has evolved slightly differently based on the location that bird stays in. I’ll show and explain this more later!
Now let’s jump into explaining the behaivor of the Blue Jay and it’s relatives.
The Blue Jay is one of the most recognizable and common birds in North America. They’re aggressive, loud, and fairly large birds that make their presence known. They are known for maliciously taking eggs from other bird’s nests for food. They feed on nuts and seeds such as acorns and beechnuts. These nuts are at times store for winter in stashes or buried in the ground, making blue jays excellent forest planters.
The Florida scrub jay is a bird that is endemic to Florida, meaning that it is only found in Florida out of all the places in the world. Florida scrub-jays live in scrub habitat where there are few tall pines and oaks but a wide midsize understory of scrubby vegetation (scrub oak). The habitat also consists of sandy soils which are used by the birds to bury acorns for food. The Florida scrub jay is a very social bird that lives in families that can become territorial of their own.
Due to human development, the Florida scrub jay has lost much of its scrub habitat. The Jays are becoming locally extirpated from certain areas in Florida due to extreme development. They are now considered to be a threatened species.
Housing development has also led to the suppression of fire, a naturally occurring phenomena that allowed for the thinning of forest habitat to scrub habitats. Therefore, routine fire (in about 3-5 years increments) is what keeps a scrub habitat healthy for scrub jays. Scientists now are actually using scrub-jays and an indicator species to tell if scrub habitat is healthy or not. If the habitat is not, scientists usually look to fire as a way to restore scrub habitat.
The Steller’s Jay is known for its dark black head and upper backs paired with a blue body. This bird is native to western North America and I personally saw it flying in Rock Mountain National Park on one of the mountains. These birds are known to live at high altitudes (around 3,000-10,00 feet in elevation) among pine trees eating an assortment of nuts and seeds (just as the Scrub-Jay and Blue Jay do).
When I was at Rocky Mountain National Park I saw this bird. Immediately I saw its bright blue color and thought it was a Blue Jay, but after seeing its dark black head I assumed that maybe it was a bird that was related to the Blue Jay but not the Blue Jay itself. How did I assume this? Well it was a big assumption to make of course, but I noticed how loud the Steller’s Jay was and the form of the bird and saw these as related characteristics to the Blue Jay. From there I could assume that this Jay probably was aggressive, fed on nuts, maybe buried it’s nuts when preparing for hibernation, and probably was a carnivore. Now these are all assumptions that very much could have been completely wrong, but it helped me understand a new species in the new environment I was in (which is pretty cool to do).
When you are traveling the world and see a new species, chances are that you nothing about that species. It can be helpful to think of a species that looks somewhat similar to the new species you are observing. Pick a species that you are familiar with. Then use this species to compare to the new species you are looking at. Chances are that somewhere down the evolutionary trail, these species are either relatives or share a relative and it can help you better understand the new species you are observing.
Like seen with the species related to blue jays, these species share similar behaviors and body plans. You can further ponder why each species has evolved differently. Is it based on the weather or the altitude? Or is it just an evolutionary difference that happened to happen? Asking yourself these questions as you travel and discover species new to you can help you understand the new world around you.
Try it and let me know what you think! Thank for listening!
https://www.birdsandblooms.com/birding/meet-jays-blue-jays-stellers-jays-western-scrub-jays/https://www.floridastateparks.org/learn/florida-scrub-jayhttps://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Florida_Scrub-Jay/overviewhttps://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/blue-jayhttps://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/stellers-jayhttps://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Stellers_Jay/id
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