The Canada jay is also known as the gray jay. It is 10–13 inches (25–33 cm) in length with a wingspan of around 18 inches (45 cm).
It is gray on top and grayish-white on its undersides. It has a white forehead and throat. It has a darker gray cap and nape and a short, dark bill.
The Canada jay is found in coniferous and coniferous-deciduous forests. It is most frequently found in spruce and fir forests. It is very rarely seen outside of its forest environment.
The Canada jay eats fruits, seeds, and insects. In winter, a large part of its diet is made up of conifer seeds.
It uses its saliva to roll seeds together into balls; it then stores the seed balls to eat later.
The Canada jay mates in the spring. The male chooses a nest site, usually in a conifer tree like the spruce or fir, and then he begins building the nest. The bowl-shaped nest is made of twigs, grass, lichen, moss, and bark that are fastened together with spider webs and insect cocoons. The nest is lined with grass, moss, fur, and feathers. The female helps build the nest. It can take up to three weeks for the pair to complete the nest.
The female Canada jay lays 2-5 pale green to gray-green speckled eggs and incubates them for 16-18 days. Both parents care for the chicks. The chicks fledge when they are about 15 days old.
The Canada jay has a lifespan of around 8 years in the wild. The oldest known Canada jay lived to be around 17 years old.
The Canada jay makes a series of whistling sounds of “wheeoo” or “wheee-ah.” It also has a harsher alarm call of “kren kren kren.” Its alarm call is a screeching “jaaayy.”
The Canada jay is also known as the “camp robber.” It is very tame and not afraid of people and will often enter camp sites to steal food.
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The Canada jay is found in northern New Hampshire. The southern edge of its range in the state is the White Mountains.
The Canada jay is found from Alaska east to Labrador, and south to northern California, New Mexico, northern New York, and northern New England.
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