Blue jays are pretty common. We see them all the time, and yet, they still have mysteries to share with us. Blue jays are also known as the "engineers of the forest." Their diet consists of acorns and beech nuts and they take these seeds to new areas and cache, or bury, their food. Sometimes they forget to come back to get these stored nuts and seeds allowing them to grow. The birds are planting new trees and expanding the forest.
In this episode of Outdoor Radio, Kent McFarland and Sara Zahendra begin on a carriage road in middle of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park looking for blue jays. These birds migrate south for the winter, sometimes. When there is an abundant source of food, like there is this year, the jays are likely to stay in Vermont. Learn how many acorns a blue jay can carry in their throat pouch and discover that, despite their name, they aren't actually blue.
Check out these links to learn more:
- Check out images, sounds and a map of blue jay sightings on Vermont eBird and add your sightings too.
- Learn more about blue jays from Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds and the Vermont Atlas of Life Breeding Bird Atlas.
Outdoor Radio is produced in collaboration with the Vermont Center For Ecostudies.
