Steller’s Jay
The Steller’s Jay is native to western North America and is its largest jay and certainly the most noisy. It is the only crested Jay west of the Rockies and is the provincial bird of British Columbia. Characteristically the jays will land near the bottom of a tree and then work their way upward, continually hopping from one branch to another until they have reached the top of the tree. Their repetitious Schaak! Schaak! Schaak! is a most familiar sound.
A dark blue and prominently crested bird, the jay is somewhat larger than a robin. It’s average size is about 12 to 13 inches.
The Steller’s Jay lives primarily in coniferous and mixed woods forests. This brightly colored and conspicuous bird can be found in low to moderate elevations as high as the tree line amid amid forests of cone-bearing evergreens. Steller’s Jays are common in residential and agricultural areas with orchards and gardens. The Steller’s Jay are omnivores and their diet consists of about 2/3 plant matter (nuts, seeds, berries, fruit) and 1/3 animal matter (insects, small rodents, eggs and sometimes even snakes and lizards). They are quite proficient at capturing insects and have a special fondness for acorns an pine seeds.
The nest is quite often in a conifer, frequently a Douglas Fir. The nest is rather bulky, constructed of twigs and other natural materials, plastered with mud and lined with grass, pine needles and other soft materials.Between 2 and 6 greenish or bluish eggs are laid. he incubation period is 15 to 17 days and is done by the female.
