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| Alpha's "Joshua Jay Bird" |
Alpha's "Joshua Jay Bird"
Featured character Oct 12th 2011
Interesting Jay Bird facts:
Jay Bird is actually a nickname for the Blue Jay. These guys are natural forest dwellers, but they are also highly
adaptable and very smart birds. They are a familiar and noisy presence
around many North American bird feeders. The blue jay's "Jay! Jay!" call
is only one of a wide variety of sounds the bird makes including
excellent imitations of several hawk calls.
Blue jays are
sometimes known to eat eggs or nestlings, and it is this practice that
has tarnished their reputation. In fact, they are largely vegetarian
birds. Mostly their diet is composed of acorns, nuts, and seeds, though
they also eat small creatures such as caterpillars, grasshoppers, and
beetles. Blue jays sometimes store acorns in the ground and may fail to
retrieve them, thus aiding the spread of forests.
Common in much
of eastern and central North America, blue jays are gradually extending
their range to the Northwest. They are fairly social and are typically
found in pairs or in family groups or small flocks. Most northern birds
head south for the winter and join in large flocks of up to 250 birds to
make the long journey. However, this migration is a bit of a mystery to
scientists. Some birds winter in all parts of the blue jay's range, and
some individual birds may migrate one year and not the next. It is
unclear what factors determine whether each blue jay or family decides
to migrate.
Okay here's a quiz test for you.
What is the one thing that makes birds different from any other animal?
Feathers!
That's right!. Birds are the only animals that have feathers.
Feathers do many jobs for
birds. Soft down keeps them warm, wing feathers allow flight and
tail feathers are used for steering.
You guys can see Joshua and his friends in this
"Alpha's Children's Alphabet Video!"
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlphasABCs?feature=mhee
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