Canada Jay

I first saw Canada Jays when hiking in Garibaldi Provincial Park in August 1963. The sightings there were appropriate, for the altitude was about 1670 metres, and this bird lives well above the valley floor. The birds just hung out with us, always seeking food. I have seen it a few times since, always well up on a mountain.

Mind you for the 1963 sighting, I knew it only by a very early name, the Whisky Jack, which was just an Anglicized version of the Wesakachak, the name in Cree, where the bird seems to have been named after an amiable trickster hero. But, by 1956, it became formally known as a Grey Jay. Curiously, from about 1831 to 1956 it was actually called the Canada Jay, and to that name it finally returned in 2018 (story told on Audubon). Sigh, it is a bird that has had a great many names, but it is probably permanent now.

In 2016, an online poll and expert panel conducted by Canadian Geographic magazine, selected the Canada Jay as the national bird of Canada, although the designation has not been recognized by the government. The significance is that this bird is found in all provinces and territories in Canada, but is only found in a few mainly western States — and nowhere else. Further, it doesn’t migrate south. It really is a distinctively Canadian bird. Just don’t look for it in the lowlands. 

These pictures were taken at about 1500 metres elevation.

The Canada Jay.

A Canada Jay eats a slug.

And then flies off with it. Photo by Cynthia.