Gray Jay

Well, this is another bird I have a personal story about, but this one is a lot more extensive than the Anhinga story. Anyway, you have heard of the Blue Jay, but what about the Gray Jay? If you’re not in Canada or the Rocky Mountains, or at least near the Canada Border, then I doubt you’ve seen one. It says that this bird lives in the forest. There was a forest near the area, so I’d believe that. It also says that the Gray Jays use sticky saliva to stick food to trees to eat later. Okay, let me ask you this. Have you ever heard of a Dark-Eyed Junco? They tend to come in the winter in this area and forage for seeds. If you have seen them, you notice that they search with fervor. Well, these birds are similar, they are also foragers, but they aren’t migratory. In addition, these birds are relatives of the crow. They are clever and could be considered tame, in the respect that they don’t fear humans. This picture says enough…

Picture from http://thebirdguide.com/washington/photos/IMG_3186_gray_jay.jpg


(It’s from Wikipedia and this is a bolder Gray Jay)
Gray Jays, as stated before seem to classify us as a source of food. They don’t eat us, but they know that we often have food. I had to deal with these things in the cold of Okpik, a lake near the Minnesota-Canada Border which was frozen at the time. Well, I saw at least two of those things when I was there, we were near some trees, so that may be part of it. Anyway, we could not leave food unattended from the camp robbers, when we left food alone, they were on it. They even swooped down and snatched a cracker from someone’s hand and didn’t notice until later.