Gray Jays

Gray Jays are amazing birds – smart, friendly, and curious. I have had the privilege of working on a long-term study of them over the past month and the coming few weeks. The study has been possible because of Dan Strickland who has been color banding the birds and finding their nests for 40 years here in Algoqnuin Provincial Park. There are about 25 territories that are monitored each year along the only road through the park, though this number used to be much higher.

These birds are especially amazing because they nest during this time of year, while the weather here is still consistently below freezing, and large snowfalls are not uncommon. Anytime from late February through early April, Gray Jay pairs will begin building their nest against the trunks of balsam fir or spruce trees. Their relatively large nests are lined well with cotton (provided by us researchers when trying to find their nests), feathers, lichen, grass, and other soft materials to insulate them well. They are well protected from snow and rain by the above branches. Sometime in March or April, the females gain half again their normal weight and lay a clutch of 3-5 eggs. After all the eggs are laid (one per day), she will start incubating. She will sit on the nest for twenty days, with occasional very short breaks for food. She will remain on the nest through snowstorms and very cold nights. When clutches finally hatch, it will still be months before most birds begin nesting, and even before many migratory birds have returned to the northern forests.

The secret to these birds success lays in their food storage abilities. Gray Jays compulsively cache food, and remember the locations of their caches, so they have food available year round. It is believed they nest during the late winter/ early spring to enable them the most time to cache food for the coming winter. By finishing nesting in April or May, they are able to spend the entire summer and fall collecting and storing food.

This technique, however, seems to rely on the presence of conifers, especially that of black spruce. In his years of observation, Dan Strickland has witnessed a trend of increasingly hardwood-dominated forests in the park, and a correlated decline in Gray Jay territories where conifers have declined the most. This type of forest change has been observed and predicted as a result of our changing climate. Another pattern has been that of warmer, and more fluctuating, fall and winter temperatures. This change is hypothesized to cause more of the Gray Jay’s food to rot, meaning they have less to support nesting. That such a hearty species as the Gray Jay has been so significantly affected in the past 30 years is very alarming. Many species likely have similar direct ties to the composition of the forests in which they live and the temperature patterns, and global changes to our climate that alter these affect them directly.

Gray Jays are not about to go extinct because of these changes, but these birds will start disappearing from the southern limits of their range. Known by many names – Canadian Jay, Whiskey Jack, Camp Robber – these birds are well known in the northern woods. It’s important to recognize their potentially fragile place in our ecosystem, no matter how steadfast their presence may seem.