Blue Jays have no blue pigments in their feathers. Instead, each feather barb has a thin layer of cells that absorb all wavelengths of colour except blue. Only the blue wavelength is reflected and scattered, resulting in their blue appearance to our eyes.

Blue Jays are often chastised for eating eggs and nestlings of other birds. Extensive research has proven this to be a very rare occurrence; only 1% of study populations showing any evidence of this behaviour.

Blue Jays are known to migrate, but the phenomenon is not well understood by scientists. Research has shown that some individuals will migrate south during some years and choose to stay in the north during others. Why? One of nature’s mysteries!

Most migratory flights by Blue Jays begin about an hour after sunrise and cease by noon.

The average migrating flock contains 10 - 30 birds.

Peanuts in the shell are a favourite among Blue Jays. Watch your feeder to see if you can observe them shaking peanuts to tell if the shell is full or empty.

Blue Jays mainly select undamaged nuts to bury; research has shown that only 10% of the nuts they cache are not viable seeds.

Research studies have recorded Blue Jays making over 1,000 trips per day when hiding food.

In one research study, 50 Blue Jays were observed selecting and caching 150,000 nuts over a period of 28 days. Each bird cached a total of 3,000 nuts by selecting and hiding an average of 107 nuts per day.

A Blue Jay was observed packing over 100 sunflower seeds into its gullet during just one visit to a feeder.

The Blue Jay is a talented mimic; its version of a Red-shoulder hawk’s call can fool even the most experienced birder.

An old folktale says that the Blue Jay was yoked to a plow by a sparrow and the mark it left behind is still visible today on the Blue Jay’s neck and chest.

The Blue Jay and Steller’s Jay (which you can see in BC) occasionally interbreed and produce hybrids.