A Song of Three Birds: Part 2

This is the second of three special episodes. Now, if you already listened to the first one, you can skip this part and just get right to the birds. If you haven’t listened to the first episode, the Western Grebe, yet, you’ve got some homework! I’ll still fill you in on what this is all about either way. These three episodes, each a little shorter than normal, I will be releasing in the next week. These episodes are from my performance and collaboration with Jack Magauhey. They will cover 3 totally new and different birds that I’ve never talked about before. In each episode, we will learn about a bird and then listen to a piece of music inspired by that bird. This suite, Feathered Friends of Fern Ridge, was written by Jack Magauhey and I’m really excited to talk about the birds and hear his music. I hope you enjoy it! The second episode is all about the California Scrub Jay, so let's learn all about this awesome bird. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:06

Welcome to Bird of the Day. My name is Sam Rodgers, and I'm a 13-year-old birder from Eugene, Oregon. This is an informative, entertaining podcast about anything and everything birds. This is episode 14. This is the second of three special episodes. Now, if you've already listened to the first one, you can skip this part and just get right to the birds. If you haven't listened to the first episode, The Western Grebe yet, you've got some homework! I'll still fill you in on what this is all about, either way. These three episodes, each a little shorter than normal, I will be releasing in the next week. These episodes are from my performance and collaboration with Jack McGaughey. They will cover three totally new and different birds that I've never talked about before. In each episode, we will learn about a bird and then listen to a piece of music inspired by that bird. This sweet, Feathered Friends of Fern Ridge was written by Jack McGaughey, and I'm really excited to talk about the birds and hear his music. I hope you enjoy it. The second episode is all about the California Scrub Jay. So let's learn all about this awesome bird.

Plumage, Sounds, and Habitat

Speaker 1 1:28

The California Scrub Jay is blue, like almost every other jay across the world. They have blue wings and tail, as well as a blue head and neck. Otherwise, they have a dark grey mask set off by a sharp white eyebrow and a grey back and white belly. A California scrub jay has a pretty sturdy, thick bill. This is a useful tool for an omnivore, allowing them to eat everything from the seeds and not just to insects, fruits, and even small snakes and birds. There are currently four species of scrub jays, all living somewhere in North America. They all look pretty similar to our bird, so I won't go into detail about what they look like. The Florida scrub jay is a rare, kind of weird jay living only in Florida. The island scrub jay is restricted only to the island of Santa Cruz off the coast of California. It is the only bird species restricted to those islands. The Woodhouse Scrub Jay lives in the interior, from Mexico to Oregon. And finally, we have our featured creature, the California Scrub Jay. This scrub jay lives only on the west coast in Washington, California, and Oregon. This bird generally likes more open areas, not forests. And it especially likes oak savanna. This is one of a few classic oak savanna specialists, adjoining the acorn woodpecker and white-breasted nuthatch. Oak savannah is an open, grassy forest dominated by oaks. This is a very important habitat type in this bird's range, providing food and shelter for hundreds of species. California scrub jays are very common in suburban neighborhoods too, often coming to feeders. These birds really like peanuts, so if you put some out, don't be surprised if they disappear in a few minutes. Now, if you are looking for scrub jays, make sure to listen for their raucous calls, like this. These calls are often made soon after landing, and the bird will give a little bow when it calls. Another call they'll make in flight is called a screech series. It sounds like this. Now onto its diet, behavior, and more.

Diet and Behavior

Speaker 1 4:13

Like I said before, scrub jays are omnivores. Now, if you're not familiar with the word, it essentially just means that an animal eats many different things. Humans are omnivores because, as a whole, we eat everything from seeds, fruit, eggs, meat, and even minerals like salt. Scrubjays eat many of the same things we do. Of course, they can't bake their own bread or make their own cocoa puff cereal, but the raw ingredients are often the same. California scrub jays eat nuts, especially peanuts, as well as fruit, insects, caterpillars, and sometimes even small rodents or birds. Scrub-jays, and all jays for that matter, are well known and well disliked for their occasional habit of eating bird nestlings and eggs. Now, in reality, scrub jays don't eat quite as many eggs as they're accused of. Now, don't get me wrong, California scrub jays will definitely eat eggs and even nestlings sometimes. But they aren't the evil masked egg bandits that everyone says they are. In fact, if you want to blame someone for egg thievery, blame the squirrels. Squirrels and chipmunks are actually the most common nest predators, more than mice, more than scrub jays, and even more than snakes. Scrubjays do eat birds and their eggs, though only occasionally. In fact, I've noticed that many small songbirds will make alarm calls and scatter when a scrub jay flies by. This isn't at all as intense as when they see a hawk or another predator, but it is significant. And I think this is partially because these small songbirds see scrubjays as a possible threat, and they worry the jay could either eggs or even the small bird itself. Anyway, scrubjays are indeed omnivores and will eat just about everything. Now, you may have heard that squirrels will bury acorns and other seeds in the ground over winter. And then this will help new oak trees grow. This is a true statement. Squirrels and other rodents will often bury food underground during winter, eating it when food is scarce. This is called caching. And California scrub jays do it too. In fact, almost all jays, crows, and magpies do this. Scrubjays will hide their food underground as well, but also under rocks, in trees, in leaf clusters, or other concealed places. They can remember at least 75% of their caches, which is much more than the average human would, and certainly more than me. It always amazes me how these birds with brains not much bigger than the nuts that they are hiding can remember the precise location of an object months before. Now, California Scrub-jays are very conspicuous birds, and you probably won't miss them. They tend to perch on the tops of trees or in other noticeable places, and their calls are very loud and raucous. Apparently, in winter they can form flocks of up to 30, but normally they're not very social birds. Pairs with a nest nearby will fiercely guard it from anything that gets too close. I think these are really cool birds, and they're so fun to watch. I know some people who hate scrubjays and others who love them. They're a common bird near my house, and I see them a lot. At any time of the day, a scrub jay could just come zooming through my neighborhood, calling like crazy. I really, really enjoy seeing this bird, and I hope you can too. That was all about the California Scrub Jay. Now, let's listen to the scrub jay swing.

Scrub-jay Swing

Speaker 1 7:57

As always, thank you for listening, and I'll see you in episode 15.