April 23
I am only going to show two corvids today, The Blue Jay and the Steller’s Jay are the only two members of the Cyanocitta genus.
Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata
This beautiful bird is familiar to many of us in Western Canada but we may not realize that visitors from west of the Rocky Mountains may have not seen it before. It reside across North America but mainly east of the Rockies. It is a year round resident and adds a flash of color whenever it appears. Now here is more information than you need. Did you know Blue Jays aren’t blue? Here is why:
The bright blue hue of a blue jay can be an eye-catching sight set against the dreary, drab backdrop of winter. In actuality, though, blue jays aren't really blue. Instead, the blue appearance is a trick of science, an optical illusion of sorts.
Whereas a cardinal, for example, gets its red plumage from red pigment, blue jays don't have any blue pigment. In fact, blue pigment is rare in nature. Instead, the pigment in a blue jay's feathers — melanin — is brown, but we perceive it as blue because of a phenomenon called light scattering, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Light scattering is similar to the effects of a prism. A blue jay's wings contain tiny pockets made of air and keratin, the same protein that makes up our hair and fingernails. When light hits these pockets in the blue jay's feathers, all of the colors of the wavelength except blue are absorbed. The blue wavelength is refracted, which is what allows us to see the feathers as blue in color, according to the Cornell Lab. This optical illusion is not unique to blue jays. This same trick of the eye gives all blue-colored birds, including indigo buntings and bluebirds, their brightly colored appearance; none have any blue pigment. You can observe this phenomenon yourself if you happen to have a feather from a blue-colored bird. If you look at the feather in normal light conditions, it will appear blue, just as it does when you see the bird in nature. If you backlight the feather, however, it will appear brown. This is because the light won't be reflected back — there is no prism effect — so we will see the melanin in the feather instead of the reflection of the blue light.
Don’t you wish you could unlearn that?
Steller’s Jay, Cyanocitta stellari
On the other side of the mountain is the Steller’s Jay. Actually it is on this side of the Rockies as well but rarely leaves the mountain habitat. As I was preparing this email and looking at the Sibley’s Guide to Birds, I noticed that there are three subspecies of Steller’s Jay shown in the book! Further Internet research landed this from the Cornell University site.
“Scientists have described 16 subspecies of the Steller’s Jay in North and Central America, showing varying combinations of black and blue on the crest, head, and body. The Queen Charlotte Islands off British Columbia are home to the largest and darkest race. In mainland North America, you can notice differences between darker Pacific forms, with blue streaks over the eye, and lighter Rocky Mountain forms with white streaks and a partial white eyering.”
So I checked my archives and I think I have all three. I will use Sibley’s subspecies names. The first is called interior west. This one is the easiest to identify as it has white forehead and throat markings. I photographed this one in Fairmont B.C., which is very close to the Alberta border. (Web-site addition. Connor and I photographed a Stellar’s Jay in south western Alberta in the Rockies in July 2020.)
The second subspecies is called Pacific. It differs from the interior west as the forehead markings are blue and it has a gray/blue striped throat. It also has strong striping on its upper and lower wing feathers and tail. In this case it is good to have multiple views of the bird to help with the ID. We photographed this bird in Telegraph Cove, B.C
The third subspecies is called the Queen Charlotte Islands. It has a darker head, a dark throat and less striping on its wing and tail feathers. While I have not been to the Queen Charlotte Islands, I have been to Gribbel Island which is not far from the Queen Charlotte Island as the jay flies. We were there to photograph the spirit bears. During the long waiting periods, we photographed any thing that moved, which included a couple of Steller’s Jays. Looking at these images, the dark throat and reduced striping is apparent compared to the ones photographed in Telegraph Cove.
