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Blue Jay

Cyanocitta cristata

Blue Jays often imitate hawk calls. They bury acorns for later and help oak forests spread.

In your real yard: Peanuts and sunflower seed. Plant an oak if you have room.

Spot it in the game

Lives in the Backyard habitat (Eastern North America).

Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata — Photo: Texas Bird Family, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist. Cut out from the original photo.

Blue Jay facts

Family: Crows and jays
Length: 11 in (27 cm)
Wingspan: 15 in (38 cm)
Weight: 3 oz (85 g)
Diet: Acorns, nuts, seeds and insects, and sometimes eggs or nestlings.
Range: Eastern and central North America, from southern Canada to Texas and Florida.
Nest: A cup of twigs and bark lined with rootlets, in the crotch of a tree.
Song: Loud "jay-jay" screams, soft bell-like calls and a good imitation of a Red-shouldered Hawk.
Active: by day
Status: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: widespread and not at risk.

What the Blue Jay sounds like

Recording 1: Doug Hynes, CC BY-SA 4.0, original on xeno-canto. Trimmed and cleaned of low background noise.

Recording 2: Anonymous, CC0, original on xeno-canto. Trimmed and cleaned of low background noise.

How to attract the Blue Jay

Feeder foods, favorite first: peanuts, sunflower seed, suet. Feeders that hold them: tube feeder, platform feeder and suet cage. Keep a bird bath full, too.

In the game: fill a feeder with peanuts, sunflower seed and suet and keep the bird bath full. It is a common visitor.

More: bird songs and calls, what to feed birds.