Читать книгу Life Histories of North American Jays, Crows, and Titmice - Arthur Cleveland Bent - Страница 19

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The Oregon jay, according to Ridgway (1904), inhabits the “Pacific coast district, from Humboldt County, California, to southern British Columbia (Vancouver Island and coast of opposite mainland).” The 1931 Check-list gives its range as “Pacific coast from Western Washington to Mendocino County, California.” Perhaps there is something yet to be learned as to where it intergrades with the other race, griseus.

It is a true “whisky jack,” or “camp robber,” replacing the Canada jay and its subspecies to the westward of the Rocky Mountains. It closely resembles the Canada jay in general appearance and habits, though it is smaller, browner on the back, where the feathers have distinct whitish shaft-streaks, and whiter on the underparts.

It seems to be confined mainly to the heavy coniferous forests at the higher altitudes in the mountains, at least during the breeding season.

G. Buchanan Simpson (1925), who gives an account of 8 years’ friendship with Oregon jays, says: “In this district (Lake Cowichan, B. C.), these birds are usually to be found in the wilder mountainous regions. In winter, however, they often come down to within a few hundred feet of Lake level in the dense forest.”

Courtship.—Mr. Simpson (1925) writes: “In February the male makes very pretty love to his spouse. The latter sits on a nearby perch, ignoring any food that is thrown out. She flaps her wings in a coy way, after the manner of a nestling being fed by its mother, making plaintive little cries. The male bird scrambles for the most pleasing bit of food which is to be found, and gallantly carries it to his wife, who receives it in her beak and eats it with a great show of satisfaction.”

Nesting.—A. W. Anthony was evidently the first to record the finding of the nest of this jay, near Beaverton, Oreg. He wrote to Major Bendire (1895) about it as follows:

The birds were discovered building on March 4, 1885; one of them was seen clinging to the side of a dead stub, about 75 feet from the ground. He was tearing out bits of moss, which did not seem to suit, for they were dropped again as fast as gathered; but at last, finding some to his fancy, he flew off and I saw him go into a thick fir and disappear. I could as yet see nothing of a nest, but as both birds were flying in with sticks, moss, etc., I was sure one was being built there. Both birds worked hard, were very silent, and did not come very near the ground, getting nearly all of their building material from the tree tops, I think. On the 16th I again visited the place, and with the aid of a field glass discovered the nest, which was to all appearances complete, but the birds were not seen. On the 21st I took a boy with me to climb the tree, and found the nest finished, but no eggs. On March 31 we visited it again and found the set complete and the female at home. She stayed on the eggs until the climber put his hand out for her, when she darted off with a low cry and was shot by me. The eggs, five in number, were but slightly incubated; the nest was placed about 85 feet from the ground and 10 feet from the top of the tree; it was built close to the trunk, and was very well hidden.

Mr. Anthony generously presented this set of eggs, with the nest, to the United States National Museum. Major Bendire (1895) describes the nest as follows: “This nest, now before me, is compactly built and rather symmetrical, measuring 7½ inches in outer diameter by 4½ inches deep; the inner diameter is 3 inches by 2½ inches deep. Externally it is composed of fine twigs, dry grass, tree moss, and plant fibers, all well interlaced, and the inner cup is composed exclusively of fine, darklooking tree moss.”

The major goes on to say:

Mr. C. W. Swallow writes me that he took a set of four eggs of this species in Clatsop County, Oregon, on May 8. This nest was placed in a small hemlock, about 10 feet from the ground. I believe as a rule they nest in high, bushy firs. I saw a pair of these birds evidently feeding young, in a very large fir tree, near the summit of the Cascade Mountains, on June 9, 1883, while en route from Linkville to Jacksonville, Oregon, but could not see the nest, which must have been fully 60 feet from the ground. But one brood is reared in a season.

S. F. Rathbun (1911) writes:

On April 18, 1909, the writer while looking through a dense strip of second growth of young red firs (Pseudotsuga mucronata) in a heavy wooded tract a few miles east of the city Seattle, found a nest of this species. The young fir in which it was built was alongside an old and seldom used path through the second growth, on the edge of a small open space about ten feet in diameter, having a further undergrowth of salal (Gaultheria shallon) and red huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium) shrubs. The tree was five inches in diameter tapering to a height of thirty-five feet, and the nest was placed close against its trunk on four small branches, at a height of twelve feet. It was outwardly constructed of dead dry twigs, next a thick felting of green moss into which was interwoven some white cotton string, and was lined with dry moss, a little dead grass and a few feathers, among the latter some of the Steller’s Jay, and is a handsome compact affair. Dimensions: average outside diameter 6½ inches, inside diameter 3½ inches; depth outside, 5 inches; inside 2 inches.

There is a nest of the Oregon jay, with a set of four eggs, in the Charles E. Doe collection, taken by J. C. Braly near Sandy, Oreg., April 20, 1932. It was about 30 feet from the ground close to the trunk of a small fir in a fir grove.

Eggs.—Major Bendire (1895) describes the eggs as “pearl gray or light greenish gray in ground color, spotted and flecked with smoke and lavender gray, and these markings are pretty evenly distributed over the entire egg. In shape they are ovate; the shell is smooth, close grained, and only moderately glossy.”

Mr. Doe (MS.) describes his eggs as “ground color dark gray, boldly marked with almost black and a few lavender marks—very striking eggs.”

The measurements of 21 eggs average 27.0 by 20.6 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 29.7 by 21.6, 27.6 by 21.8, and 25.4 by 19.3 millimeters.

Plumages.—Ridgway (1904) describes the young bird in juvenal plumage as follows: “Entire pileum and hindneck dull sooty brown or grayish sepia, the feathers narrowly and indistinctly margined with paler; no whitish collar across lower hindneck; sides of head similar in color to pileum, the auricular region with indistinct dull whitish shaft-streaks; nasal tufts sepia brown; chin and anterior portion of malar region dirty brownish white; throat dull grayish brown, intermixed with dull grayish white; rest of under parts pale broccoli brown, some of the feathers with indistinct paler shaft-streaks; wings, tail, back, etc., essentially as in adults; bill partly light-colored.”

I have noticed in young birds I have examined that the wing coverts are not tipped with white, as they are in adults. A partial postjuvenal molt, including the contour feathers and wing coverts, but not the rest of the wings and tail, begins early in July and may continue well into September in some individuals; I have seen one bird that had not quite completed the molt on September 10. The complete postnuptial molt of adults begins early in July and is probably completed in August in most cases.

Food.—Very little has been published on the food of the Oregon jay, but it is apparently just as omnivorous as other members of the genus Perisoreus. It is a frequent visitor at the camps and feeds freely on anything edible, scraps from the table or any other food that it can beg or steal. Mr. Simpson (1925) writes about the birds around his camp:

We have tried the birds with all kinds of food and their undoubted favourite is cheese, of which they are passionately fond. * * *

The birds each had their morning morsel of cheese today. They hold it in their mouths for a long time, turning it over and over with their tongues, as if the taste were most pleasing to them. The cheese is often shifted to the ‘pouch’ under the chin and held there for some time. Then it may be deposited carefully on some safe perch, licked and mouthed again with Intense satisfaction, then finally eaten. They do this with no other food. * * *

The Whiskey Jacks eat bread, porridge, uncooked rolled oats, cake, farinaceous food in general, and, of course, meat, raw or cooked. They have taken an occasional bite of apple or pear. Sometimes one will catch and eat an insect, but they will not look at an earth-worm. Fish, either raw or cooked, they dislike.

Mr. Rathbun has sent me the following note, made at Lake Crescent on April 21, 1916: “Today, while slowly rowing along the shore of the lake, I came across eight Oregon jays feeding among the growth of willows and the debris strewn at the water’s edge. The birds were engaged in capturing the newly hatched stoneflies, very many of which were fluttering about in the air or crawling on the rocks and broken branches on the shore. The jays took the flies in the air as easily as flycatchers capture insects. In early April, at the time the stoneflies appear, these birds resort each morning to the shore of the lake to take the insects named, and evidently capture a great number of them. We have watched them do this time and time again.”

Behavior.—The Oregon jay seems to be fully as fearless, sociable, and mischievous as our more familiar “whisky jack.” Major Bendire (1895) quotes from Mr. Anthony’s notes as follows: “ ‘Fearless’ is an appropriate term to use in relation to this bird; it seems utterly devoid of fear. While dressing deer in the thick timber I have been almost covered with Jays flying down from the neighboring trees. They would settle on my back, head, or shoulders, tugging and pulling at each loose shred of my coat until one would think that their only object was to help me in all ways possible. At such times their only note is a low, plaintive cry.” Mr. Simpson (1925) writes:

On the approach of a Hawk, whose presence is usually detected by these birds from afar, they at once become perfectly motionless in the thickest part of a bush, uttering a low, plaintive, warning cry. When hard pressed, they will successfully fight off a Cooper’s or a Sharp-shinned Hawk. After all these years on the Lake shore, they continue to take a Gull or a Heron for a Hawk, and display the same symptoms of fear.

Unlike some of our race, they have a passion for soap! We cannot leave a piece of soap outside the house for a short time without it being carried off by the Jays. The camp soap suffers the same fate at 5000 ft. level in summer. When carrying anything beyond the capacity of their beaks, they use both feet with which to hold the object, the legs hanging straight down beneath the body as they fly.

As far as we have observed, these birds are a gentle, most lovable company, minding their own business in bird-land, and never robbing a small bird’s nest (of which there are always several nearby of Song Sparrow, Yellowthroat, etc.).

The Jays make free with our small garden, in which we find them admirable companions, respecting all our cherished alpine plants as well as salads, tomatoes, berries and the like.

Ralph Hoffmann (1927) thus describes the behavior of these jays about a camp: “A bird * * * flits noiselessly out of the forest and starts to investigate the camp. With a soft whee-oo another follows, flying to the ground, hopping about or carrying back a scrap of refuse to a limb. A flock keeps constantly drifting on through the trees, flying now to the ground, then to a branch or even clinging to the side of a tree trunk. The soft, fluffy plumage gives the bird a gentle look in keeping with its fearlessness and soft voice. Let a hawk appear, however, and the Oregon Jays will mob him with loud screaming cries, ke-wéep, ke-wéep.”

Field marks.—The Oregon jay is not likely to be confused with any other bird within its habitat, as its range does not overlap that of the Rocky Mountain jay. It is about the size of a robin; it has a white forehead, a white collar around the hind neck, a whitish breast, and a brownish back; the crown and back of the head are blackish. Its soft, fluffy plumage and its confiding habits are also distinctive. At close range the whitish shaft streaks on the back may be seen.

Fall.—Mr. Rathbun tells me that “this jay is resident throughout the entire region but is found more commonly in the higher altitudes from early in spring until late in fall, after which period many individuals come to the lowlands, and here the species will be often met with during the winter months. This movement from the mountain regions begins about the middle of October, and from that time on Oregon jays will be met with from time to time in nearly any part of the region.”