Cyanocitta Stelleri, Steller's Jay

Day 130: Let's get one thing straight right off the mark: this is a Steller's Jay..."Steller's," not "stellar" despite the bird's stellar colouration. Georg Wilhelm Steller was a German naturalist and explorer in the early 18th century. As such, he contributed to our knowledge of the natural world by discovering a number of new species (largely in Alaska and the Arctic), at least two of which are now extinct. Many of those species bear his name today, either as a common name or in their taxonomic designations. The "blue jay" we see in western Washington is one of the birds he described. Its natural range extends from southern Alaska down the west coast to southern California and along the Rocky Mountains into Mexico. Like most other corvids, its behaviour has been criticized as aggressive, but in my personal experience with these birds, as long as there is enough food to go around, its reputation is grossly exaggerated. Year-'round visitors to my feeders, Steller's Jays eat compatibly beside the smaller birds and are even somewhat timid when confronted by the larger crows and ravens. Steller's Jays are also known to mimic the call of the Red-Tailed Hawk and, clever corvids that they are, may do so in order to cause more skittish birds to seek cover, allowing them to feed at their leisure. In my yard, they only seem to argue among themselves, and that, seldom more than a peck at another bird trying to occupy the same spot.