This week’s Bird of the Week, compliments of the Weminuche Audubon Society and Audubon Rockies, is the Canada jay.
You may know this bird by its nickname, “camp robber,” conferred for its habit of showing up at high-altitude picnics, hikes, camps and ski area tables looking to grab a snack. Canada jays are also known as Whiskey Jacks, an anglicized version of the Cree name for a clever trickster.
Living year-round in northern and high-altitude environments which are snow covered in winter requires the ability to store food for the long cold months, and these birds have mastered the talent. Throughout the year they cache perishable foods, including berries, insects, mushrooms and pieces of meat after molding their find into a sticky blob held together by saliva. They stuff this food supply under loose bark or lichens, in needle clusters or glue it to a branch where tree resin helps to slow bacterial and fungal decay. They have been known to store up to 1,000 caches per day with the ability to find them later.
Once mated, pairs stay together as long as both are alive, rarely spending time apart. Oddly enough, they nest in late winter even when temperatures still fall way below zero. Both sexes contribute to building a well-insulated nest, an effort that may take up to three weeks, but incubation is left to the female.
Fledglings may stay with their parents for about a month after leaving the nest. Sometime in June, the largest of the brood kicks its siblings out of their parents’ territory and they must find and store their own food. Only the dominant one may stay with its parents through the coming winter.
Imagined as an overgrown chickadee, the Canada jay is gray overall with a rounded head, white cheek, throat and forehead. Its thick, fluffy plumage puffs up in the cold to protect the feet and legs. Even the nostrils are covered in feathers.
In a popular poll in Canada, the Canada jay was first choice for a national bird. Canadians are known to brag that like them, this bird is very intelligent and friendly.
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