Baby Blue

Going up for late night feed at the stable last night, I was stopped in my tracks by a little baby bluejay, sitting rather sad and forlorn in the middle of the Parking Lot under the yard light.

He was not very impressed, also not very impressed with being rescued (having no doubt been told not to go off with strangers.)  It was far too dark and late to have any hope of finding the nest, so he was set up in a red bucket, with some hay to snuggle into. Hung gently on the branch of the most likely tree, and had the yard light turned off so he would go back to sleep.

Handling baby birds fallen from nests will not stop the parents from caring for them. The best ticket is to get them back in the nest, but this is not always possible. Next best is to ensure they are safe, and as close as possible to where they were found.

Come morning he was yelling for his breakfast.  The parents were nearby, kicking up a ruckus. Last seen he had vacated his bucket, and gone to hide in nearby thick bushes.

Bluejays are not really as blue as they look.  The colour in their feathers is not produced by pigment, as it is with brown and yellow birds for example. Tiny air pockets in the barbs of feathers scatter incoming light, resulting in a specific, non-iridescent color. Blue colors in feathers are almost always produced in this manner.

If you find the feather of a Blue Jay you can check it out. First, observe the feather in normal lighting conditions and you will see the expected blue color. Next, try back-lighting the feather. When light is transmitted through the feather it will look brown or grey. The blues are lost because the light is no longer being reflected back and the brown shows up because of the melanin in the feathers.

The feather structures of many species also reflect light in the ultraviolet range. Some birds can see into the UV range so they may appear quite different to each other than they do to us. Big white flowers, for instance, look vivid purple to many insects... and birds.