Not Little Boy Blue

Word has apparently gotten around to our local avian population that the food is pretty good here, as today we had the usual birds (mostly Chickadees and Towhees), plus a couple of adult Starlings and several hungry fledglings, a female Black-headed Grosbeak, a dominant Crow, a female Flicker -- and Donovan the Douglas Squirrel, of course.

This handsome Steller's Jay didn't seem at all shy about having its picture taken, which surprised me, given how shy the one I photographed on May 22 was. Further research on Seattle Audubon Society's Birdweb revealed that adults "have blue vertical 'eyebrows' above each eye,"
 which can be seen in the extra photo. The distinctive shaggy crest is evident in these two photos; in the earlier photo, perhaps due to the bird's youth and its posture, the crest was barely visible.

I need to come up with gender-neutral names for these two birds, as the only way to tell a female Steller's Jay from a male is the former's slightly smaller size!  

A courting male feeds his chosen female, helps build the nest, and brings food for the nestlings; egg incubation is the female's responsibility. They have a wide range of vocalizations, and are excellent mimics of other bird species calls.

All of this nature study is much more appealing than routine daily tasks!

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