True Blue?

Meet Cyanocitta cristata - the Blue Jay.  One of our year-round resident song birds.  And a flashy one at that.

As long as we have a feeder full of seeds and peanuts this bird is a non-migrator around here and sticks with us for the duration of winter.  As a matter of fact this is one of the few birds that saves for a rainy day.  Yup, they will cache food for lean times.  They will also feed on the eggs and young of other birds as well as dead critters they happen-upon. 

This bird has a reputation for being known as the burglar alarm of the woods and will raise a raucous call when an intruder materializes.

Here's a fact that you can use to impress your friends and co-workers.  This bird has not a stitch of blue pigmentation.  The pigment in a blue jay's feathers is melanin - which is brown.  The blue appearance is a consequence of the refraction of sunlight filtering thru the modified cells on the surface of the feather barbs - resulting in a blue light.