Bird of the Day - Canada Jay

 

The bird of the day today is the Canada jay.  It is also known as the Perisoreus canadensis, gray jay, whiskey jack, moose bird, and camp robber.  The official common name was Canada jay up until the 1950s when the American Ornithological Union voted to change the name to gray jay.  They further insulted Canada by using the American form of gray.  Recently, they voted to change it back to Canada jay.

Canada Jay (Left) and Blue Jay (Right)

The Canada jay is in the Corvidae family, which includes the jays, magpies, nutcrackers, crows, and ravens.  It is a family of very intelligent birds, and the Canada jay is no exception.  They are nicknamed camp robbers because of their exceptional ability to procure food from people.    Peanuts are one of their favorites, but they will come in for a variety of foods.

I've found that they will swoop down towards people with food, but will waive off instead of landing right away.  Then they sit in a tree and study the person.  If they decide the person is not a threat, they will land on the person's hand, and take the food.

There are also times that they will sneak in and grab food when the person is not paying attention.  I met a person who was trying to put a cracker in their mouth, and it disappeared before it got there.

The Canada jays spend so much time caching food in the winter, that they have historically been able to survive the nesting season without having to do any additional gathering.  Unique among the corvids, they have a saliva that acts like a glue to stick cached foods into great hiding places.

The caching has been a disadvantage in their southern ranges as the climate warms, because a lot of their perishable food has gone bad during nesting season.  For many years, I saw flocks of three birds in the winter (two parents and the dominant offspring), but now I usually only see one or two at a time.  With the food spoilage, not as many young are surviving to maturity.

The range of the Canada jay covers most of Canada and Alaska, the Arrowhead region of Minnesota, the Rocky Mountains, and part of the Pacific Northwest.  There are six subspecies in North America, which differ slightly in markings.  The subspecies in Minnesota is the albescent.

Bird of the Day - Pine Grosbeak

 The bird of the day today is the pine grosbeak.  This beautiful bird has joined on us the Gunflint Trail for almost every winter since 2002.  Last winter was the only exception due to a strong seed crop throughout the region.

In the last week, I have noticed that the numbers of pine grosbeaks are dwindling, which means they have probably started their migration back to the Arctic.  There are no known birds of this type who nest in Minnesota; they just come to Northern Minnesota for the winter.

Male pine grosbeaks have significant red coloring after the first year.  Females have some yellow coloring after the first year.  Males and females in their first year can be russet colored.

Female Pine Grosbeak

Male and Female Pine Grosbeaks\

Male Pine Grosbeak

Bird of the Day - Evening Grosbeak

I was thrilled this last week to see a whole flock of evening grosbeaks.  My first couple of years on the Gunflint Trail, we had large irruptions of these beautiful birds, but they have been quite sparse since about 2003.  

Often I only see 2 - 6 of these birds over the course of a whole year.  This was a flock of about a half dozen individuals.  Hopefully, they will stay around for the winter!

Male Evening Grosbeak

Male Evening Grosbeaks

Male Evening Grosbeak

Male Evening Grosbeak

Male Evening Grosbeak

Female Evening Grosbeak

Bird of the Day - Bohemian Waxwing

 I saw these beautiful Bohemian waxwings last week at the Pincushion Mountain Overlook Trailhead above Grand Marais, Minnesota.  It is really fun to see the unique species of birds that come through during migration.

Bird of the Day - Rock Pigeon

The Bird of the Day today is the rock pigeon.  It is also known as the rock dove and the feral pigeon.  Scientifically, it is known as the Columba livia, and in Irish, it is known as Colm aille.  It is native to Europe, and especially adept at living in the cities.

I spotted the birds in these pictures while hiking the Duluth Lakewalk in Duluth, Minnesota.  These birds were sitting along the railroad tracks, next to the hiking trail.

There are a lot of interesting color variations association with this species.  The top three pictures are of the most common color variation, and the bottom bird is much more unusual.  I had to look in several field guides to find this variation, and finally located it in The Complete Guide to Birds to North America put out by National Geographic.

Bird of the Day - Semipalmated Plover

The Bird of the Day today is the semipalmated plover.  I saw this one in Grand Marais, Minnesota on May 31, 2020.  It migrates through Grand Marais.  This bird most likely spends its' winters on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and migrates every year to at least as far north as the shores of Hudson's Bay.

The last time I saw this species was exactly three years earlier, on May 31, 2017.  It was species number 85 on my most recent Big Year, which ran from April 30, 2017 - April 30, 2018.  You can see a picture of the bird on my May 31, 2017 blog article.  The early articles in the archive of this blog are all about that Big Year.

Lighthouse Goose

When I was in Grand Marais, Minnesota on Monday, I come across this scene of a Canada goose looking at the West Breakwater Light.  The vast majority of the Grand Marais Lighthouse pictures are of the main lighthouse on the east breakwater.  I like rooting for the underdog, so I thought I would feature the lesser known light.  This light was lit in 1902, and is still active today.  It is a lot harder to access than the main lighthouse, but you can get close to it in a boat, or by climbing over a lot of very large boulders.

The Canada goose is further from the light than the picture might suggest.  I was on shore when I took the picture, and the goose, lighthouse, and orange lichen covered rocks all lined up nicely.