BLUE BIRDS SEEN IN NORTH AMERICA

Florida Scrub-Jay

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Aphelocoma Coerulescens

Florida Scrub-Jay

Adults are mainly blue and white, with a long tail and pale underparts. They have blue head, neck, wings and tail, and white throat edged with a blue-gray bib.

They have a whitish forehead, grayish-white back and underparts (chest, belly and vent). Eyes are dark brown to black. Legs and feet are black.

Both sexes are similar.

Juveniles have brown upperparts, from dull brown to dark brown.

BILL: black and sturdy.

SIZE: measures about 9.1 - 11 inches in length, with a wingspan of 13 - 14 inches.

WEIGHT: weighs from 66 to 92 grams, with an average of 80.2 grams.

COLOR: blue, blue-gray, white, grayish-white, black and brown.

Variety of acorns, seeds, peanuts, berries, insects (grasshoppers, crickets, and caterpillars), spiders, tree frogs, snakes, lizards, bird eggs, nestlings and young mice.

Low-growing oak scrub and scrubby flatwoods with sandy soils.

Florida.

CALL: Utters varied calls, including raspy, hoarse notes. The most common call is a guttural “quay-quay-quay”.

The alarm call is a screech scold, a grating repeated note, given from shrub top to attract other jays when a predator approaches.

They give attack growls, short and harsh calls, indicating imminent contact during a fight over territorial defense.

NEST: Both sexes build the nest, but the female spends more time shaping the open cup-shaped nest made of twigs, rootlets and lined with plant fibers or tiny rootlets.

EGGS: 3 - 4 greenish eggs, spotted with cinnamon.

INCUBATION: 16 - 21 days, female.

NESTLING PHASE: 12 - 25 days.