The Blue Jay Redeemed

          (Summary by Robert M. Davis of Les Line, “Slings and Arrows”, Audubon, Sept-Oct., 2008, pp 80-86)

 “Bully! Thief! Murderer!” Who among the just has not uttered these imprecations at a blue jay caught “in flagrante delicto,” chasing smaller birds away from a feeder,  stealing eggs from nests, or even dropping nestlings, accelerating at 32 ft/sec/sec however wee they be,  from on high to the hard ground many meters below?  The blue jay has indeed a bad reputation, fostered even by the likes of John James Audubon. But Les Line adds to his own observations those of other specialists such as Professors Curtis Adkisson and Susan Darley-Hill of Virginia Polytechnic Institute to show that not only is this bad reputation exaggerated but that the blue jay functions as a keystone species in the growth of trees and forests by  carrying and dispersing  tree seeds.

 This species is very familiar to us by its apparent colors. It has a greater variety of songs and calls than most of us realize, and it is even a good mimic of some hawks.  It is also an intelligent bird that quickly learns to avoid traps and to get around barriers to feeders. Many or most of them reside year round in a range from southern Canada to the Gulf Coast and west to the edge of the Great Plains . But many thousands of these birds  migrate south, although the patterns of migration are unknown. It is actually quite rare, according to some studies, that a blue jay really eats the eggs or the young of other birds. It consumes insects, nuts, berries, very small animals occasionally, but especially seeds—which leads to its great value as an avian forester.

 The blue jay played a key role in the “rapid northward expansion of oak, beech, and chestnut trees once the glaciers retreated 10,000 years ago.” In our time, they continue to collect millions of seeds, especially acorns, and to carry them to caches some distance away.  On each flight a bird can carry up to five acorns in its throat and esophagus and an additional acorn in its bill. At its destination the bird regurgitates the acorns, which may eventually germinate and become trees if the carrier dies, moves away, or forgets the cache.  Moreover, this bird is selective, carrying off healthy seeds and leaving behind imperfect ones. And if climate change causes the disappearance in the American north of maples, birches, and beeches, the blue jay may well again carry oaks and hickories northward to replace them.  So we must spare this bird our slings and arrows.

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