Loud, brilliant, and clever, the Blue Jay is one of Michigan's most conspicuous backyard birds. The blue crest, black necklace, and white wing bars make identification easy; the harsh "jay! jay!" scream makes it easier still. Jays are corvids — relatives of crows and ravens — and their intelligence shows in everything from mimicking Red-tailed Hawk calls to raiding feeders in organized shifts.
Blue Jays are year-round residents, though some Michigan jays migrate in loose daytime flocks along the Great Lakes shorelines each fall. Their habit of burying acorns for winter makes them accidental foresters: forgotten caches become the next generation of oaks.
Acorns and other nuts are the staple, supplemented by seeds, insects, and the occasional egg or nestling raided from another bird's nest. At feeders they love whole peanuts, often flying off with two at a time.
Blue Jays commonly mimic Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawk screams. It may warn other jays a real hawk is near — or clear the competition away from a feeder. Either way, it works.
Not chemically. Their feathers contain no blue pigment — the color comes from light scattering through the feather structure. Crush a jay feather and it turns dull brown.
They're assertive at feeders and other birds usually yield, but genuine nest raiding is less common than their reputation suggests. Spreading feeding stations out reduces the bullying.
Yes — Blue Jays are present in Michigan in every month of the year. Numbers stay fairly steady from month to month. Birds are easier to detect in the breeding season, when they are singing and displaying, so a quiet winter month can feel emptier than the population actually is.
Many jays molt all their head feathers at once in August and September, leaving a startling black, leathery, vulture-like head for a week or two. It is normal and temporary. Juvenile jays are also fluffier and grayer than adults with a shorter crest.
A party or a band in old usage, but birders say flock. What jays genuinely do is move in loose daytime migration flocks along the Great Lakes shorelines in spring and fall — sometimes hundreds an hour past a lakeshore watch site.
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