Let's get to know blue jays
It’s official: The Toronto Blue Jays are headed to the World Series, and baseball fever is taking over the country.
Let’s get to know more about the blue jay, the team’s namesake, and PEI’s provincial bird.
Blue jays aren’t blue
Blue jays can live up to seven years and, believe it or not, their feathers aren't blue. Their colouring is the result of the structure of the feathers, which distorts the way light is reflected, making them appear blue. If you were to take a Blue Jay feather and grind it up or place it on a white, lit surface, it would look brown, not blue.
We see bright flashes of blue in their feathers due to a phenomenon known as "scattering," which is similar to how a prism works. Blue jay wings contain small air pockets that match the wavelength of blue light. When light hits the feathers, all colours pass through them except for blue, which is reflected.
Some blue jays are producing hybrid offspring
Biologists at The University of Texas at Austin (UT) recently found a rare hybrid jaybird, and say it may be one of the first examples of an animal that exists because of climate change.
The bird is the natural offspring of green and blue jay parents, two species separated by 7 million years of evolution. Green jays are usually found in Central America, ranging from Mexico into southern Texas.
Blue jays are seen across the eastern U.S., rarely west of Houston, Texas. In the past, they seldom met. Climate change has pushed green jays north and blue jays west; both now live around San Antonio, Texas.
"We think it's the first observed vertebrate that's hybridized as a result of two species both expanding their ranges due, at least in part, to climate change," Brian Stokes, a graduate student in ecology, evolution, and behavior at UT, and first author of the study, says in a statement
A rare hybrid bird identified in a suburb of San Antonio, Texas (centre panel, credit: Brian Stokes) is the result of mating between a male blue jay (left, credit: Travis Maher/Cornell Lab of Ornithology/Macaulay Library) and a female green jay (right, credit: Dan O’Brien/Cornell Lab of Ornithology/Macaulay Library).
Where to find blue jays in Canada
Blue jays are found across southern Alberta eastward to Quebec, and throughout Atlantic Canada. They’re partially migratory: In more southern locales, blue jays will hang around throughout the winter. Jays in colder, more northern areas will migrate during the colder months. Because of this, Ontario’s Point Pelee National Park, which is the southernmost point in Canada, sees a lot of blue jay activity during the fall migration period. According to the Canadian Wildlife Federation, up to 3,000 birds can be seen congregating at the park in one day, making a final pit stop before crossing Lake Erie.
You’ll also see a lot of monarch butterflies at the park. They pass through Point Pelee on their 8,000 km journey to Mexico.
Header image: file photo via Canva Pro.