[birding] RE: Steller's Jay imitates Blue Jay

[Don Boucher]

Hello,

I once was fooled into thinking there was a Blue Jay in the north Corvallis neighborhood I used to live in ('95 thru '99). I ran outside and tracked the sound down to a Steller's Jay. It wasn't a very good imitation but similar enough to get my attention. The call seems to be a variation of the Steller's Jay alarm call. It's the less rapid call they make when very excited or distressed. I've heard it on occasion since in varying degrees of similarity to that of the Blue Jay. This Blue Jay impression seems to be like said alarm call but more 'forced' and drawn out and rising and falling in pitch. I speculate that the jay Michael heard could have come about the Blue Jay sound accidentally. I say this only because I've heard it several times. Nevertheless, I wouldn't exclude the possibility of a Steller's Jay visiting from somewhere within Blue Jay range.

Check out my recording of the Steller's Jay alarm on this page:
http://www.neighborhood-naturalist.com/bird_sounds/pages/120_crows.htm
The Blue Jay impression isn't included here. It doesn't sound like a Blue Jay but it doesn't take much modification for a Steller's to turn this alarm sound into a call resembling a Blue Jay.

I spent much of my childhood in Pennsylvania and I am familiar with Blue Jays. 

Don Boucher
Corvallis, OR

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