To many people, blue jays do not appear so appealing. They are unkind birds, and make a lot of noise. But underneath all the noise and hard feelings, blue jays are interesting and kind of quirky animals.

Being so loud and obnoxious, they seem to be a nuisance more than anything else. But when listening carefully, you will realize that blue jays have the ability to actually mimic other birds, especially hawks. This may be to warn other blue jays that there is a hawk in the area, or to trick other animals into thinking there is.

Blue jays are omnivores. This means they eat both vegetable foods and meat. Most of the time their diet consists of berries, nuts and insects. But on unusual occasions they also eat frogs, small rodents such as mice, and very rarely even other birds’ eggs.

It is unknown why some blue jays migrate while others don’t. One year a blue jay will go south, the next year remain in the north, and the following year go south again. When they do migrate, they fly quite high, and travel in flocks of up to 250 birds.

Blue jays usually lay four to six eggs at a time, and the chicks take about two weeks to mature. The nests are anywhere from eight to 20 feet up in coniferous trees (and sometimes deciduous) in city parks, suburban yards and woodland swamps. When mature, the grown blue jay stands about 10- 12 inches tall. It is difficult to tell male and female blue jays apart, because there is so little difference between the two.

Blue jays live mainly east of the Rocky Mountains. Farther west is the Steller’s jay, a somewhat scrawnier version of our fat, rowdy blue jays.