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Perhaps I'missed it, but I don't see anything about California jays hiding food and coming back for it in a short time. They will hide unshelled peanuts in shrubbery, in the grass or other places. When hiding peanuts in the grass, they will fetch a leaf (sometimes several feet away) place the leaf over the peanut, and adjust the leaf a time or two. They leave and return in a short time which seems to indicated that hiding the peanut is necessary because they can carry only so much at a time.

Stellars Jay?

Any thoughts on making a stellars Jay redirect to this page??

See the Steller's Jay page. Michael,in Sonoran Desert, YumaAZ-- Mmcannis 02:07, 19 June 2006 (UTC) reply

Don't Mix up with Steller Jay!

Don't mix the blue jay with the Steller Jay! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.176.183.250 ( talk) 17:21, 14 July 2009 (UTC) reply

structural color and leucistic?

The photo of the "leucistic" blue jay...? I don't understand how a bird that has no pigment can properly be called leucistic, which seems to be a pigment abnormality. 66.68.84.208 23:45, 10 April 2007 (UTC)dc-a reply

True. One has to use this expedient way of putting it though, as there is no special term for loss-of-structural-coloration. (leucistic animals do have some pigment - the bird in question has black for example).
I'm thinking about a better way to put it. Dysmorodrepanis ( talk) 11:45, 15 February 2008 (UTC) reply

Inappropriate Citation?

"However, this may not be as common as is typically thought, as only 1% of food matter in one study was compromised by birds.[10]" Citation 10 does not say anything on that subject, as far as I can tell. 67.174.68.249 ( talk) 15:35, 22 September 2012 (UTC) reply

huh

How are bluejays only on the east coast, we have blue jays in British Columbia? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by TotallyTempo ( talkcontribs) 04:18, 24 January 2007 (UTC). reply

Yeah, we have them in San Diego too. What's up with the map?

Let me guess - they are absent in summer? The species is spreading NE, and "spilling" over the Rockies as of recently, roughly in the Seattle/Vancouver area and surroundings. 2 decades ago, one would probably have seen a Blue on the West Coast once in a decade if at all. Expect them to become a common resident west of the Rockies in our lifetimes. Dysmorodrepanis ( talk) 11:49, 15 February 2008 (UTC) reply

Central Californian coast has had blue jays since at least 1980 and probably a lot longer. "Nowadays" doesn't seem like the appropriate word. Eddietoran ( talk) 20:56, 25 April 2009 (UTC) reply

hey

there is an Portuguese article of it,"Gralha Azul",someone can put it there?(I don't know how,tanks in advance.

See pt:Gaio-azul - as Portuguese is not a widespread language in the bird's range, it is best put on the Portuguese Wikipedia. Dysmorodrepanis ( talk) 12:07, 15 February 2008 (UTC) reply

EASTERN BLUE JAY

There are three closely related blue jays native to North America. The pictured one is an Eastern Blue Jay. As the article states, it lives east of the Rocky Mountains, i.e.the eastern two-thirds of the continent, except Mexico and far northern Canada. According to TotallyTempo's comment above, they now live in British Columbia (south-west Canada), where I suspect they were either introduced or strayed and established themselves. The other two blue jays live west of the Rockies: the California Blue Jay and Steller's Jay. They are the same size as the Eastern Blue Jay, but differ in color, which shades from medium blue to very dark blue and nearly black. If my memory is correct, their heads are the darkest part of their bodies. Steller's Jay sports a blue to blue-black crest on the top of its head. The California Blue Jay has no crest. Both of these western blue jays are quieter and less agressive than their eastern cousin but live just as comfortably near humans.

Not quite. This is the reason we have capitalization in bird names. The bird dealt with here is THE Blue Jay. There are literally hundreds of "blue" jays all across the Americas, and arguably the scrub-jays are also a kind of "blue jay". —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dysmorodrepanis ( talkcontribs) 11:43, 15 February 2008 (UTC) reply

Mexico's native jay is the Green Jay, which ranges from the southern-most tip of Texas south to Bolivia. I've never seen one except in a photo, which pictures a large and stunningly beautiful bird. Mary Eastman Wilbur hi mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.197.28.235 ( talk) 00:09, 22 January 2014 (UTC) reply

hawk imitation

I would like to add a sentence or two about the blue jay's habit of doing a rather good imitation of a hawk call. I am looking up some references on it right now - both in print and on the 'net. This is something that I have witnessed dozens of times myself - although the first time I thought I was going crazy. If you are unfamiliar with this phenomenon - check out this google search. Durruti36 02:34, 16 June 2007 (UTC) reply

Great idea! It could go in a " Vocalization " subsection under "Behavior". -- Jude 19:17, 16 June 2007 (UTC) reply

Intelligence/behavior

IIRC BJs can be divided into "plunderers" and "non-plunderers" - the former steal from other BJ caches, the latter do not. When "plunderers" cache food, they go at great lengths to make sure that no other BJs observe them; sometimes they move around for prolonged time with food in beak, without eating it, if they cannot avoid conspecifics. "Non-plunderers" seem blissfully unawares of who obsrves them caching. This indicates that not only do they have individual personalities, but are actively aware of this fact, have a concept of "self" vs "others", and can reflect and abstract from their activities to those of others; they are thus capable of basic logical thought. Not bad for a teaspoonful of brains. Might be different NAmerican jay species though. I think the study was published in Science, Nature or PNAS in 2007, possibly in 2006. Dysmorodrepanis ( talk) 11:52, 15 February 2008 (UTC) reply


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Tool use in the wild

Has anyone ever seen a blue jay employ the let-a-car-crack-a-nut trick crows have been known to use? Because I have.

Feared force?

"The Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) is the morst feared force in the bird kingdom". I fear this is a somewhat ambiguous claim. It is unclear who, what or how it is feared. Some elaboration would be helpful here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.250.53.6 ( talk) 16:00, 29 June 2008 (UTC) reply

New York state bird?

The blue jay is not the state Bird of New York as specified in the article. New York's state bird is the Eastern Bluebird. 72.230.240.155 ( talk) 00:55, 29 July 2012 (UTC) reply

Inaccuracies

The description says that blue jays have a prounounced crest on the head and the map shows them only living on the east cost. But Western Scrub-jays are blue jays living on the westcost and have no such crest. Could someone broaden the article? --  penubag  ( talk) 02:21, 10 January 2010 (UTC) reply

Blue Jay, capitalized, is a different species of jay from the Western Scrub-jay. The Western Scrub-jay may be a blue jay, but it is not a Blue Jay. A great reason as to why bird names should be capitalized. Rufous-crowned Sparrow ( talk) 13:33, 9 May 2010 (UTC) reply
Actually, a great reason why species should be referred to by their proper scientific names. Blue Jay is not its name, Cyanocitta cristata is its name. -- 68.255.101.2 ( talk) 04:31, 27 June 2011 (UTC) reply
There is no reason to capitalize this bird's name unless we want Wikipedia to look like it's written by modern Americans who have no idea what a proper noun is. It'd be nice to see someone invested in this article calm down the over-capitalization here. I have long since given up trying to coach my fellow editors in English. Eric talk 02:04, 1 October 2012 (UTC) reply

Another brit Pretending To Know What He's Talking About. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.32.20.192 ( talk) 02:08, 5 December 2012 (UTC) reply

Guess again, neighbor. You don't have to travel that far east of NY to find a literate English speaker. Eric talk 13:27, 9 January 2013 (UTC) reply

Link to my page of bluejay nesting photos?

A while ago I took pictures of a bluejay nest, showing every day from hatching to leaving, and posted it on my website as a photo essay. The photos are at http://suitable.com/fun/bluejays/index.html; the site is my personal and business site, but has no ads, and gets no benefit from traffic. Would it be appropriate to add a link to this article's "External links" section? -- Dan Griscom ( talk) 12:29, 21 October 2012 (UTC) reply

Two months, no objections: I've added a link. -- Dan Griscom ( talk) 18:56, 27 December 2012 (UTC) reply

Reader feedback: Picture of a FEMALE blue jay...

166.147.104.168 posted this comment on 8 February 2014 ( view all feedback).

Picture of a FEMALE blue jay and a male - to see the difference, please.

Any thoughts?

CompAnatProf ( talk) 14:46, 24 February 2014 (UTC) reply

This species is not sexually dimorphic.

Etymology of the name

The article states that the name 'blue jay' "derives from its noisy, garrulous nature.[3]" I know this is cited, but even so, it is incorrect. The blue jay was so-named by early settlers to the US because of its resemblance to the Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius), another corvid. The Eusrasian jay, or just 'jay' as it was known by the settlers, is a noisy, garrulous and inquisitive bird. The settlers often named the birds they came across in the new continent after familiar birds from home, such as the robin - the Eurasian robin is a small red-breasted bird and the American robin was named after it because of its red breast. There are many other examples. It seems extraordinary that the etymology of the blue jay's name is not given correctly here. 217.39.106.157 ( talk) 18:24, 26 June 2014 (UTC) reply

You are probably correct but a reference is needed for support. Dger ( talk) 21:31, 26 June 2014 (UTC) reply

Confusing Names at Beginning

The beginning of the article states "The blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata), (Chara Azul), or (Geai Bleu)...," which appears to be treating the French and Spanish translations the same way as its scientific name. It could be taken as incorrectly implying that Cyanocitta cristata is simply a name for the Blue Jay in another language. I suggest that, to remove this potentially confusing format, either the Spanish and French translations of Blue Jay be removed, or at least not referred to in the same manner as the scientific name. Jeda045 ( talk) 02:04, 7 May 2015 (UTC) reply

Rusty Pump audio

Better audio should be found for the "Rusty Pump" call. This audio includes many catbird mew calls and I think one other bird that is also not a blue jay. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.4.242.11 ( talk) 21:30, 13 October 2015 (UTC) reply

Underpants?

"It is predominantly blue with a white chest and "underpants", and a blue crest."

Pretty sure you meant "underparts" (without quotes).

CF many other other bird descriptions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.104.186.185 ( talk) 14:50, 10 July 2016 (UTC) reply

I would say you're right. Go ahead and fix it! Awien ( talk) 17:07, 10 July 2016 (UTC) reply
Done. Awien ( talk) 23:23, 11 July 2016 (UTC) reply

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Photo

I propose that the photos of the Blue Jay in flight should be replaced- their quality is not good. Aythya affinis ( talk) 14:19, 8 November 2021 (UTC) reply

Bluejay

What kind of blue jay are there in texas 73.6.119.145 ( talk) 18:52, 10 May 2022 (UTC) reply

In Texas, I believe the only 'blue' jay species would be Cyanocitta cristata, whose common name is the Blue Jay. Aythya affinis ( talk) 16:00, 11 May 2022 (UTC) reply