The Steller’s Jay is a familiar scavenger that mostly lives west of the Rocky Mountains, from Alaska to Mexico. The most noticeable difference from the common Blue Jay is its coloring. It uniquely has extensive black on the head and upper body, while the common Bluejay has a white head or possibly more accurately, a blue and white head.
Steller’s Jay is one of two species in the genus Cyanocitta, the other being the Blue Jay. The Cyanocitta genus in turn belongs to the Corvidae family, which consists of ravens, crows, jackdaws, rooks, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers, for a total of more than 120 species. In western North America’s evergreen woods, Steller’s Jays can be found by birdwatchers at elevations between 3,000 and 10,000 feet (lower along the Pacific coast).
The nearby relatives of the Corvidae are the shrikes and Birds of Paradise. Most of the birds are very nervous and flee quickly, but will come in quite close to people to get food. They generally are found in groups but are smaller than the flocks of crows often seen in the West. It is a relative of the crow and shows the opportunistic behavior patterns of the crow, but is lesser, and more aggressive.
The Steller’s jay is well-known for mimic behaviour; it can replicate the sounds of other animals, birds, and non-animal sources. It frequently mimics the sounds of predatory birds, such as osprey, red-tailed hawks, and red-shouldered hawks, to alert other birds to danger or to engage in territorial behavior. This causes other birds to take cover and avoid feeding places.
Steller’s Jay is the embodiment of the drive to live and the message of hope in decay. The jay will teach you survival skills, boldness, and adaptation, but you have to be willing to follow its example. As omnivores, Steller’s jays eat primarily plant matter, with only a small amount of animal stuff in their diet. They harvest food from the ground as well as trees.
The main food of Steller’s jays consists of a wide variety of seeds, nuts, berries, and other fruits. They also consume a wide variety of invertebrates, tiny rodents, eggs, and nestlings, including marbled murrelet nestlings. When visiting feeders, Steller’s jays show a preference for black-oil sunflower seeds, white-striped sunflower seeds, cracked corn, shelled raw peanuts, and whole raw peanuts in particular. Suet is consumed as well, albeit primarily in the winter.
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