[Mnbird] Jay mimec

[Steve Weston]

While in our area the jays favor Red-tailed Hawk, I have found that they
favor Red-shouldered Hawk in Florida where those hawks are more common.

Steve Weston
On Quigley Lake in Eagan, MN
sweston2 at comcast.net

On Mon, Sep 12, 2016 at 12:30 PM, Pamela Freeman via Mnbird <
mnbird at lists.mnbird.net> wrote:

> 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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