northeast-flora-and-fauna

This Blue Jay had something in its mouth. I'm not sure what it was, but as you can see in the 2nd picture, the Blue Jay wasn't willing to share it with me. I can't tell what it's got in its bill. It appears that the item is blurrier than the Blue Jay; I think this can happen what the item is fluffy/furry. My primary theories are: Something soft for lining the interior of a nest. Or perhaps it's a pupa of an insect that the Blue Jay intends to eat. So I guess my theories are that this is either food or shelter. Note this isn't the 1st time I've seen Blue Jays with food or building material . May 25, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 292819158, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) May 25, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 292819185, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Though a number of our local birds have blue plumage [1], the Tree Swallows are almost certainly the shiniest. While some birds are bluer (like Indigo Buntings , Blue Grosbeaks , and probably Blue Jays ), when you factor in the shine, you get a Tree Swallow [2]. I'm pretty sure those thorns indicate this fella was in a Honey Locust tree. I don't know if it's a favorite perch for this bird, but it might be a little safer there than elsewhere. I suspect that any climbing predator would need to take care to avoid those dangerously sharp thorns. Of course, this tree provides little protection from an aerial attack from a hawk. Since the males are generally bluer/shinier, this is almost certainly a male. May 14, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 292808063, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] But they don't have blue pigment; their blue plumage is dependent on their feather structure to reflect the blue light hitting them. [2] At least that's true for New Jersey...

This could be a really good Blue Jay picture except for 1 small branch in the way. I get enough partly obstructed pictures of birds that I sometimes wonder if the bird believes that things like this branch provides important protection from me [1]. Of course, it's just as likely that birds spend their time in natural settings that generally don't provide clear line-of-sight views. These obstructed views might be due to the idea that a bird has to exist somewhere, and there are simply more obstructed places of it to be than there are unobstructed places [2]. On the bright side, if you ignore the branch, the lighting and background show off this Blue Jay's coloring pretty nicely. May 10, 2023 at Delaware Raritan Canal Photo 282314536, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] The actual protection it gets comes from 1) I don't mean it any harm, and 2) the distance between us. [2] This theory works better in woods than it does in a parking lot or a large, flat ...

Despite seeing Orioles, Blue Jays, and Cardinals 1 day this past spring, no baseball was being played. Of course, Orioles , Blue Jays , and Cardinals are different birds than Orioles , Blue Jays , and Cardinals . (It's doubtful that any of the birds I've mentioned would be particularly good at baseball since they all weigh less that a baseball [1]. In recent years a number of sports teams have changed their nicknames/mascots due to concerns about offending a group. We could eliminate all of that if every team switched to using bird names instead; at least I've never heard a bird complain that a team nickname demeaned them [2]. We could have heated battles between Juncos and Buntings, Scaups and Mallards, Cuckoos and Roadrunners. May 3, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 278556506, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) May 3, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 278557219, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) May 3, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 278557422, (c) jpviolette, some ri...

Our common names for many species can cause confusion: Sometimes people will tell you they saw a "blue bird" and you'll think they're talking about a bluebird, which in this area basically means an Eastern Bluebird . Other times people will be unaware that there's a difference between the Eastern Bluebird and other blue birds. While we have lots of birds that are bluish gray (including the aptly named Blue-gray Gnatcatcher ) and some vibrantly blue birds that you don't see a lot (like the Indigo Bunting ), there are actually some common blue birds we see more often than Eastern Bluebirds. Here's a non-bluebird blue bird, the Blue Jay . These noisy birds are actually much larger than Eastern Bluebirds; confusing them is probably similar to confusing me with a Polar Bear. May 3, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 278557206, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) The next bird, a Tree Swallow , has a shinier blue than the Eastern Bluebird, and as cavity nester...

On the same day I met those Eastern Boxelder Bugs , I got a couple decent pictures of a couple of our common, year-round birds. These are 2 of the more dominant birds around bird feeders (though they have lots of rivals ). Both are handsome little guys, though their abundance might cause them to be a little under-appreciated. Since they showed up on my visit, I wanted to share their pictures. First I got this picture of a Red-bellied Woodpecker , 1 of our most commonly seen woodpeckers . April 24, 2023 at the Raritan River Greenway Photo 272681068, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) Later on I got this picture of a Blue Jay , 1 of our most common corvids . April 24, 2023 at the Raritan River Greenway Photo 272683068, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

I have to admit that I didn't recognize who this was at 1st. (I don't see a lot of Red-shouldered Hawks , and iNaturalist says they're critically imperiled in New Jersey.) The thin even stripes on the breast/belly reminded me of our accipiters , our Cooper's Hawk and Sharp-shinned Hawk , but their heads would have more color and their tails wouldn't have white stripes. Instead it turned out to be the buteo that resembles an accipiter. Though this is considered of our most vocal hawks (listen to its soothing music stylings here ), this 1 wasn't talking. Perhaps because it had its mouth full; it was clearly tearing apart and eating some small animal. This was taken adjacent to a canal, so frogs, small turtles, snakes, squirrels, rabbits, muskrats, and any number of small birds could have been its victim. Though some old-time birders considered Red-shouldered Hawks and Red-tailed Hawks to be arch enemies that wouldn't share a habitat, the Red-shouldered Hawk...

Here's another Belted Kingfisher I met extremely late last fall. I've shown these guys before , and although it's easy to "encounter" these birds (a fleeting look at a fleeing bird, a long distance look across water, or hearing their trilling call), getting recognizable pictures is a less reliable endeavor. People will sometimes try and get one of the birds they see identified though their descriptions match nothing in the area (or maybe nothing on the planet). A sighting of a "blue woodpecker" is an example of that. What could the bird have been? If it's a bird poking around on a tree, a Red-breasted Nuthatch  or a White-breasted Nuthatch are strong candidates. Though more of a bluish-gray than a conventional blue, they navigate tree trunks adroitly like woodpeckers, and they are looking for insect food up there. A Blue Jay might store food like acorns in a tree for eating later in the season and are happy enough to eat insects on trees if they f...

Last autumn at Duke Island Park I was seeing quite a few Blue Jays . Though they're pretty common, they move around quite a bit so I don't get pictures of them as often as I'd like. On this day I got pictures of them with their mouths full. The 1st one is pretty easily understood; this Blue Jay has found an acorn to eat . They use their beaks to break into the relatively soft acorn shell, break the edible part up into pieces, and enjoy their acorn feast. But given that this picture is from autumn, it's perhaps more likely that the Blue Jay will hide this acorn for a wintertime meal. Us humans can technically eat acorns ourselves, though acorns from the red oak group of oak trees is generally too bitter for us to enjoy. When humans have eaten acorns, we'll usually get them from the white oak group . I'm not sure that Blue Jays have the same preference. October 15, 2021 at Duke Island Park Photo 168430305, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) Here'...

Here's a Blue Jay foraging along a roadway last autumn. It's a bird I've talked about before , though I'm sure entire books have been written about these colorful, loud, and clever birds.  While the size differences of the birdfeeder birds may not seem important to us, they frequently make a big difference to the birds themselves. Cardinals are around twice the size of many of our sparrows, and the Blue Jay is nearly twice the size of a cardinal. This is why Blue Jays are among the most dominant/prominent birds at a birdfeeder, at least among the frequent visitors. (Occasional visits by someone like a Pileated Woodpecker or crow - let alone a Wild Turkey - would upset the hierarchy.) At least until the Gray Catbirds return, the Blue Jays probably reign supreme around here in the loud squawking department. Even when you can't see these attractive birds, you can still hear them. October 11, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 168359172, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (...

Here's a fairly common bird that I hear a lot, sometimes spot, but rarely get pictures of, the Belted Kingfisher . It appears to be a male since the female should have a visible chestnut colored band showing up underneath the blue band that both sexes have. That extra chestnut band makes the Belted Kingfisher one of the few birds where the females are slightly more colorful than the males. These guys are a bit larger than Blue Jays and share the Blue Jay tendency to raise an alarm call when they see a perceived threat like, but not limited to, photographers. Many times, a kingfisher will spot me and as it flies away it'll warn the herons and ducks that I'm there. Admittedly they aren't as loud/squawky as Blue Jays, but they don't make it easy to get pictures of waterfowl. From perches like this one, the Belted Kingfisher will try and spot a smallish fish, then dive into the water to catch it in its bill. Though their size and style of fishing are different, they a...

Here's a Blue Jay I met a couple months ago. Though these guys abundance, vivid color, and noisiness make Blue Jays one of the easiest birds to spot, I don't really get a lot of pictures of them. As corvids, they're probably smart enough to be leery of humans, and tend to move around quite a bit making it harder to focus a camera. This picture came out pretty good though. Blue Jays aren't versatile mimics - they're unlikely to imitate other passerines - but they are considered to do an excellent imitation of at least 2 birds: Red-tailed Hawks and Red-shouldered Hawks . It's possible they developed this as a warning call, though they might use it to scare other birds away from a good food source too. Certainly this call will get the attention of most birds (and birdwatchers) in the area. I talk a lot about species that exhibit sexual dimorphism , where color or size easily distinguish the males from the females. Blue Jays are a good example of the opposite, mon...

Here's a Blue Jay doing one of the things they do best: squawking.  Loud and bossy, these corvids (they're relatives of the crows) are commonly seen throughout the year here in New Jersey. Though they're known to prey on smaller birds, they actually eat mostly insects and acorns/nuts. And while I don't know if they fool any hawks, Blue Jays are known for their ability to mimic the cries of Red-shouldered and Red-tailed Hawks. (One possibility is that making these calls can really clear out a bird feeder, leaving the food for the Blue Jays.) April 30, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 128320545, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Northern Mockingbird , though as I recall at the time it was not mocking anyone. This bird is probably our most common general-sound mimic. While Blue Jays do excellent Red-tailed Hawk and Red-shouldered Hawk impressions, Northern Mockingbirds have a wider repertoire. Jogging by the Robert Woods Johnson Hospital one morning I'm almost certain one was doing an ambulance siren. Many times you can identify them solely by sound when you hear one go through 5-6 different sounds one after the other, then start again at the beginning. (Sure, it's possible that you've got 6 different birds hiding in the same spot and taking turns singing ... but practically speaking you're probably safe in assuming you've got a mimic hiding up there.) A related bird, the Brown Thrasher , is similar. One way to differentiate them by sound is that the Northern Mockingbird repeats a sound 3 times while the Brown Thrasher repeats a sound twice. Another relative, the Gray Catbird ,...