Over the last few weeks, while wandering around in the vicinity of my cabin, I heard the distinctive call of a hawk on several occasions. Each time I heard the call, I scanned the open sky above me but saw nothing.
Over the weekend, while
chatting with my neighbors near their campfire not far from my cabin, Patrick
told me a Steller’s jay had been regularly hanging around them. “The jay doesn’t seem to mind us at all,” he
added. “It will land in the trees right
alongside us. The coolest thing is, it
makes the call of a hawk now and then.”
I laughed. “I have been seeing a Steller’s jay and hearing
a hawk,” I said. “That might explain a
lot.”
No more than ten minutes after
our conversation, the Steller’s jay appeared in a spruce tree about fifteen
feet from me. I watched the bird jump up
through the limbs. Just before flying
off to another tree, the jay made the call of a hawk.
Steller’s jays are an interesting study. They are highly intelligent, bold, and more aggressive than most birds. Steller’s jays will eat almost anything: insects, berries, seeds, smaller birds, small animals, and they hang around us because they crave our table scraps. Most interestingly, Steller’s jays are known to mimic the sounds of other birds and animals around them. When threatened, they may imitate the calls of owls, hawks and even domestic cats. Steller’s jays are found within in the forests of the Rocky Mountains. I see them fairly often at my cabin.
Steller’s Jay
Hawk’s Call Video
—Mitchell Hegman
Photo: Dillon
Hanson/USFWS
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