[Mnbird] Jay mimec

[Pamela Freeman]

I have read about this behavior in a few articles and sites, after hearing
it myself at my feeder a year or so ago. Apparently they do it not
infrequently, and it isn't completely known why, but there are theories.
One theory is that they do it to scare other birds from a food source.
Another is that they have acquired it as a warning call and use it to warn
such as when something or someone gets too near to their nest. However,
there are instances when they have been observed making this call when
there is no reason to warn or other jays present to communicate to. ​One
article posits that they may just enjoy the sound and that it is similar
enough to other sounds they make naturally that it just is incorporated
into their vocabulary.

We get hawks, of several species around our house, and I always now look
rather than assuming I know that it is a hawk after finding myself duped by
that jay!
 I find the jays interesting to observe. They often work in groups under
and at my feeders, where some go about feeding, while one or two others
keep watch, switching places/roles.
They are often maligned, being noisy and seeming rather aggressive (who
else in the bird world dares to chase a cat!) but they are really
interesting birds, and quite lovely. I find corvids fascinating.
I think we tend to dismiss them, because they seem common, and their call,
nay, scream can be loud and perhaps annoying, but if we were traveling from
somewhere else and saw their blue beauty, we would ooh and ahh at them,
like we do tropical beauties elsewhere.  Their shape, too, is pleasing,
with that crest.


- Pamela
Never give up on a dream just because of the length of time it will take to
accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.

“There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.”
― Aldo Leopold <https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/43828.Aldo_Leopold>

On Mon, Sep 12, 2016 at 11:49 AM, Jon Gorder via Mnbird <
mnbird at lists.mnbird.net> wrote:

>     For about two weeks we've been hearing a distinct Red Tail call around
> our block here in St. Paul.
> We thought maybe an early migrator stopping for rest but then it kept up
> for days on end. I finally heard it in a tree right outside our place and
> went out with binoculars and found a Blue Jay in a white pine overlooking
> the peanut feeder and it was just doing a perfect imitation of a hawk.
>
>     We knew some Corvids were pretty good mimics but never heard of this
> behavior. Is it more common than we know?
>
>
> Jon and Lisa,
>
> Cathedral Hill
>
>
>
>
>
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>
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