Another puzzling thing is that it was imitating the call of the Mississippi Kite - a very good "PIT-tooooooooooo"! I've never heard anything like it before. It was very clear, albeit with a little "smaller" sound as if the volume was turned down a bit.
If you have any insight as to these mysteries, please post here or Email me (at the address on the photo) and let me know.
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A little more research into the Blue Jay shows that it often imitates the call of hawks. Kites are in the hawk family. In captivity, Jays can even mimic people.
ReplyDeleteI learned something today, and witnessed it.
I've seen jays that have this same odd appearance -- hope someone has an answer for us!
ReplyDelete"Seasonally, a few birds are attacked by feather mites, tiny arthropods whose feeding destroys feather shafts. Normally, the birds would divest themselves of these mites by preening, but birds cannot effectively preen their own heads. Once the mites have destroyed their food source on the birds' heads, they must either move on to a new victim or place themselves in jeopardy on another area of their host's body."
ReplyDeleteThank you very much!
ReplyDelete