Western Scrub-jay by Ken _Gilliland
Close
Hover over top left image to zoom.
Click anywhere to exit.
Members remain the original copyright holder in all their materials here at Renderosity. Use of any of their material inconsistent with the terms and conditions set forth is prohibited and is considered an infringement of the copyrights of the respective holders unless specially stated otherwise.
No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
One of my favorite birds, the Western Scrub-jay, is highly intelligent. This particular jay ("Scruffy") mimics a special whistled tune by me. He'll land on my bedroom window sill in the morning and start sing the tune-- a subtle hint that it's time for the lazy human to wake up and give him his daily ration of peanuts. He then plants the peanuts through-out the yard (for those peanut-less days).
Scrub-Jays have been used in laboratory studies of its ability to hide and remember seeds. Jays that had stolen the caches of other jays noticed if other jays were watching them hide food. If they had been observed, they would dig up and hide their food again. Jays that had never stolen food did not pay any attention to whether other jays were watching them hide their food. Jays can remember approximately 50% of their hiding places.
Jays often get humans to do their biding in other ways. In one account, a pair of scrub-jays directed a homeowner across a yard to scare off a cat in a tree close to their nest.
Scrub-jay have formed a symbiotic relationship with mule deer. They hop over the body and head of the deer to eat parasites. The deer often help the jays by standing still and holding their ears up.
Scrub-Jays in areas where acorns are abundant have deep, stout, slightly hooked bills while those in areas with lots of pinyon pine have long, shallow, pointed bills. This evolutionary change has created the right bill for the right food source.
Captured with a Nikon 5000.
Comments (26)
What a great capture! Beautiful blue. :)
Excellant capture and great history of the bird..
nice bird, never saw here
ooops-- forgot to add.... Western Scrubs are found in the United States-west of the Rockies. The endangered Florida Scrub-jay looks almost exactly like the Western Scrub-jay but the behavior is totally different. Florida Scrub-jays cooperate, working as a community, to survive whether as the Western Scrub-jay is notoriously aggressive -- even sometimes to siblings and mates-- every bird for themselves-type behavior.
Superbe photographie!
Splendid bird, excellent capture!
Stunning capture with fine detail
superb
Super photo
Nice pic and great info. I have lived in Florida 40 years and have only seen a Scrub Jay a couple of times.
Splendid image
Really fantsstic shot and some truly fascinating info.
A beautiful shot of Scruffy. He is pretty and I loved reading his story. What a lovely way to wake up!
love how the branch pulls you and and you see the bird
We had a lot of scrub jays here, but the magpies moved in and chased them off. Then the crows moved in and chased the magpies out. Then they all died. We are just now finding a few scrub jays and magpies in the neighborhood. Whatever caused them to die off has me worried. Beautiful capture.
Fascinating!!! and a beautiful shot!!!!
excellent image my friend well done havent heard from you in while hope things are ok with you
Wow, beautiful shot of a beautiful bird. I love how you blurred out around him and how his subdued colors now match the background.
Wonderful capture!
a lovely bird !!beautiful captured too!!
Wonderful capture!
What fascinating information & a great photo!
Great capture and interesting information.
Nice capture. Thanks for sharing and for the info.
Great capture of this beautiful and very clver bird! :o)
What a ~Lovely Creature~ Always Amazing & Interesting... OUTSTANDING ART!!!