Brooklyn Bird Watch: June 30
Blue Jay. Scientific Name: Cyanocitta cristata
Today, Brooklyn Bird Watch features a Heather Wolf close-up shot of the Blue Jay, seen in Shirley Chisholm State Park just west of Canarsie Park along the Belt Parkway.
Although the beautiful, intelligent, and fascinating Blue Jay is one of our most popular birds in the U.S., it does have its detractors who consider the bird to be annoyingly loud, and aggressive and rude at bird feeders. It is also considered an abundant species and, according to Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird website, there have been over 15 million sightings worldwide so far this year. Locally, Brooklyn Bridge Park has registered 1,297 sightings this year while Prospect Park has registered over 29,000 Blue Jay sightings.
In addition to their well known, screech-like calls, the National Audubon Society informs us that Blue Jays do make a variety of musical sounds as well, doing a “remarkable imitation of the scream of the Red-Shouldered Hawk.” Ornithologists conclude that this raptor imitation is to alert other Blue Jays nearby that a predator is in the vicinity or perhaps to fool another species into thinking a hawk is present.