Gray jays easier to see in the fall

Autumn (yes this is still autumn, despite the snow) is a great time to see one of the northland’s most intelligent and comical birds, the gray jay (Perisoreus canadensis). This bird spends much of the year secreted in the deep woods. But as fall comes on, they search further afield for food, sometimes even visiting backyard birdfeeders for a short time.

I like these robin-sized gray birds because when you look at them, you can almost see the “gears” turning in their heads as they work out a way to get some food. A few weeks ago, while taking a forest hike with my family, a gray jay came along, perching in nearby trees and watching my daughter. It seemed to be making a quick calculation that small humans often travel with snacks. Small humans also sometimes drop crackers onto the trail, making an easy food source for a gray jay. While this gray jay didn’t get a snack for its trouble, we got a chance to see it close up for a while.

Gray jays are related to bluejays, crows and ravens that share our region. Gray jays have other common names including timberjay, whisky jack and camp robber. The last name comes from stories of people camping in the Boundary Waters who have seen the swift gray jays sometimes steal bacon right out of a frying pan. Like their raven cousins, gray jays seem to be clever and adaptable foragers. They are also very good at caching (storing) their food. Gray jays have huge saliva glands, which allows them to turn seeds or fruits into marble-sized sticky “spitballs” that they can store in tree crotches, under loose bark or in tufts of pine needles.

Like the other members of the raven family, as a percentage of total body weight, gray jays have brains almost as large as human brains. They use their big brains to find food, and remember where they hide it.

One reason why gray jays can survive in northern Minnesota all winter long is that they are food generalists. Unlike geese who feed on aquatic plants and ducks who feed on aquatic insects and plants, gray jays eat just about anything from fruit to seeds to insects to carrion. They have even been seed picking at soap or wax candles. When one food source (roadkill deer for instance) is available, the gray jays will feast. When dead dear are scarce, they switch to eating seeds or insect grubs.

Now that the leaves are down, and gray jays are moving closer to human communities and roads in search of food, this is the perfect time to to watch these clever, creative northwoods birds. Like us, they have settled in for the winter and like us, they seem to know that it will take some work to survive the winter.