Blue. Green. Gray. Unicolored. Jays are among the most charismatic and appreciated families of birds in the world. Though many are common, few fail to elicit oohs and ahhs when they swoop into feeding stations en masse to gorge on sunflower seeds and suet. We love their attitudes. We love their colors. We love their intelligence. So let’s celebrate them a little bit.
The next I and the Bird will be all about Jays! Posts from the Neotropics and Asia will be most appreciated, but we’ll take a wide variety of North American species as well.
As usual, send those posts to naswick AT gmail DOT com by January 8 for a January 10 publication. Make sure to put IATB in the subject line.
Nate Swick is a birder. He grew up in the midwest but currently makes his home in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife and two young children, who are not yet aware that they are birders too. He has a soft spot for Piping Plovers and loves pelagics even when his stomach doesn’t, which makes him the quintessential Carolina birder. Nate is the editor of the ABA blog, host of the American Birding Podcast, and author of two books, Birding for the Curious and The ABA Field Guide to Birds of the Carolinas.
Yay, Jays! Great choice!
“murder of crows”….”jostle of jays”
“rout of ravens” ,,,, “crew of cardinals” ,,,”squadron of pelicans”